PART
FOURTEEN
The
John Kyte Collett
(including a branch line from Swindon to Australia)
This
is the second of two sections of the fourteenth part of the Collett family
Updated December 2016
The June 2011 version of this family
included a new branch of the Collett family that was previously depicted in
Part 9 – The Aldsworth Line. However,
the error for placing the family there was highlighted during the compilation
of two new lines for the Collett families of Alcester and Abbots Morton in
Warwickshire. Therefore we must
apologise to the family of Wayne Arthur Collett of Brisbane (Ref. 14Q10) which
has now been correctly placed here in this family line, and is denoted by the
names that are underlined.
The original error came from the fact
that there were two George Colletts born around 1811, with the family details
shown in Part 9 for the George who was actually the George in Part 14. The good news for Wayne and his family is
that his ancestors can now be traced back to 1485 to Thomas Collett in Part 1
via Part 14, instead of to only 1760, as in Part 9.
The November 2007 update comes courtesy
of Rita Garnett
whose great great grandmother was Ann
Mary Collett (Ref. 14N33)
14M7 |
Thomas Shelburn Collett was born on 24th January 1811
at Upper Slaughter and was baptised at the Baptist Chapel in Bourton, the son
of Robert Collett and Mary Ann Kyte. His
second forename was the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, while his
birth was recorded in the register at Bourton on 12th November
1811 by Protestant Dissenting Minister Thomas Coles, taken from the personal
record of the event provided by his parents.
He was around two years old when his father took the family to live in
Bourton and in the early 1830s the family left Gloucestershire and moved to
Somerset. That family move may have
been caused by Thomas being charged on 22nd December 1831 with trespassing with a gun and a dog at
Sherborne while in pursuit of game.
That Thomas Collett was named as the son of Robert Collett, a miller
of Bourton. However, it has yet to be
proved that Thomas the poacher was Thomas Shelburn Collett. |
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It
was after arriving in Shepton Mallet that Thomas married Ann Chamberlain. It would appear that the marriage did not
produce any children for Thomas and Ann who were living in Shepton Mallet during
1841 when Thomas Collett was 30 and his wife Ann was 25. According to the next Shepton Mallet census
in 1851, Thomas Collett, age 40, was the Deputy Registrar to his father
Robert Collett (Ref. 14L7), was born at Upper Slaughter in 1811, was married,
and was living at Darshill in Shepton Mallet, but with no wife or any
children listed with him. |
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His
wife Ann Collett was very likely the 36 years old Ann Collett who was listed
as a servant at the High Street house of Thomas Cook, a gun maker. The couple were still apart in Shepton
Mallet at the time of the following census in 1861, when Tom S Collett was
50, and his wife Ann was 45. However,
it was at Shepton Mallet that Thomas Shelburn Collett died, sometime during the
following months of 1861. At the time
Thomas and Ann were the only members of the Collett family still living
there. |
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14M8 |
Elizabeth Kyte Collett was born on 31st August 1812
at Upper Slaughter and was baptised at the Baptist Chapel in Bourton. It was at Bourton where she married her
cousin |
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14N13 |
Robert Dalby |
Born in 1838 |
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14N14 |
Frances Jane Dalby |
Born in 1842 |
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14M9 |
Emma Humphries Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 23rd
November 1814. She died in 1846 by
which time her parents Robert and Mary Ann Collett had moved to Shepton
Mallet. Her second name derived from
earlier connects with the Humphries family and the fact that her mother Mary
Ann Kyte was a beneficiary under the terms of the 1802 Will of Robert
Humphries the uncle of Mary Humphries who married Thomas Collett (Ref. 14K9). |
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14M10 |
John Ryland Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 17th
August 1816 and he died in 1834 after his parents Robert and Mary Ann Collett
had moved to Shepton Mallet. His
second name derived from earlier connections with the Ryland family. See Ref. 14I16. |
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14M11 |
Susan Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 2nd
March 1818. She was married three
times, to (1) Mr W Gait, to (2) Mr J Garrett, and to (3) Mr James B Mattick
of Radstock in Somerset around 1860.
It was the last of them with whom she had two sons Walter B Mattick, who
was born in 1862, and Herbert E Mattick who was born in 1864. It is not known if Susan had any children
from her earlier marriages. In 1881
James and eldest son Water were listed as being grocers and drapers, while
Herbert was a saddler. Susan was listed
as being 62 and born in |
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14M12 |
Emily Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 21st
June 1821. She married (1) Henry
Chamberlain and (2) George Robbins. It
is very likely that Henry Chamberlain was the brother of Ann Chamberlain who
married Emily’s brother Thomas Shelburn Collett (above). Emily produced three children from her
first marriage, they being Henry John Chamberlain, Emily Ann Chamberlain, and
Lucy Marianne Chamberlain who died unmarried the year before her mother. According to the 1881 Census Emily Robbins
nee Collett aged 59 and born at Bourton-on-the-Water was living at |
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14M13 |
Lucy Ann Collett was born at The Mill in
Bourton-on-the-Water on 27th February 1823. She was a milliner and dressmaker and lived
for some years with her widowed father up to 1853 when she sailed to At
the start of the following year whilst at Castlemaine she met and married
John Henry Foster a carpenter and builder.
John was born in London in 1827 and the couple were married on 25th
March 1854. Lucy
Ann Foster died on 24th December 1902 at Queensland, her husband
John having died two years early on 5th July 1900. |
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Lucy Ann is the starting point for the
family line of |
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14M14 |
Ellen Hook Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 4th
October 1825 and died that same year. |
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14M15 |
Mary Anne Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 28th
July 1828 and died in 1897. No record
has been found to say she married, but it is possible, although not yet
proved, that she married Richard Collett (Ref. 3N1) of Chedworth. According to the 1881 Census, Richard
Collett and Mary Ann were living at Middle Row, Woodman Inn in Bourton-on-the
Water with three of their children. |
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For the continuation of this family
line see Part Three – The Chedworth |
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14M16 |
George Bryan Collett
may have been born at
Upper Slaughter in 1811 but was baptised at the Baptist Church in Bourton-on-the-Water
on 23rd January 1812, the eldest child and only known son of
Joseph Collett and his wife Mary Bryan.
In his later life he gave his place of birth as Upper Slaughter and
Bourton-on-the-Water. Upon leaving
school he also left the family home when he moved to Stanway in
Gloucestershire, about ten miles from Bourton. |
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He
remained unmarried for much of his early life, and it was not until 15th
October 1846 that George Collett married Elizabeth Emms from Hazelton, which
lies five miles south-west of Bourton.
The marriage at Stanway recorded his age as being 35 years, 9 months
and 14 days, compared to his bride, who was just 20 years, 3 months and 14
days old. From this information it has
been calculated that Elizabeth was born on 1st July 1826, and within
the IGI there is the baptism of an Elizabeth Emms on 20th August 1826
at Ebrington, who was the daughter of William and Ann Emms. However, it is more than likely that
Elizabeth’s father was Oliver Webb Emms who was married at Didbrook (near
Stanway), for a second time during 1846.
This assumption is based on the fact that one of Elizabeth’s children
was named Oliver Emms Collett. |
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Once married the couple initially
settled in the village of Condicote, not far from Stow-on-the-Wold, where
their first child was born during the following year. Not long after the birth, the family moved
to nearby Lower Swell, where the next three children were born, and where the
family was living at the time of the census in 1851. George Collett, age 39 and from Slaughter,
was a farm bailiff, his wife Elizabeth was 24 and from Hazelton (Hastleton),
and their two sons were Joseph Collett who was three years old and from
Condicote, and Oliver Collett who was two, who had been born at Swell. It was Oliver’s baptism record at Lower
Swell that included his full name as Oliver Emms Collett. |
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By
the time of the next census in 1861, the family had left Lower Swell and were
living at Longborough, just two miles from Lower Swell and Condicote. During the past decade two further sons had
been born to George and Elizabeth at Lower Swell, but by 1861 their oldest
son was no longer listed with the family.
According to the Longborough census that year, George Collett was
still a farm bailiff, although his age was recorded in error as 40 and not
49, and he said he was born at Bourton-on-the-Water. Elizabeth Collett from Hasleton (sic) was
34, and their three sons were Oliver Collett, age 12, George Collett who was
six, and James Collett who was two years old.
Their eldest son Joseph would have only been 13, so it is possible
that he had died prior to that date. |
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Within
the next twelve months the family moved again, when they left Longborough for
the village of Eyford, within the parish of Upper Slaughter, where their
daughter and last son were both born.
It was obviously George’s occupation as a farm bailiff that resulted
in so many moves for the family, and by 1871 they had moved once more, on
that occasion to Cirencester. At the
time of the 1871 Census for Cirencester the couple’s two eldest sons had left
home to make their own way in the world, so the remainder of the family was
recorded as George Collett, age 59, his wife Elizabeth, who was 44, and their
four children George Collett, age 16, James Collett, age 12, Mary Collett who
was eight, and Frederick Collett who was five years old. |
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Ten
years after that George Collett, age 69 from Upper Slaughter, was still
working as a farm bailiff, but by that time in his life he and Elizabeth, age
54, were living at Cerney Fields in South Cerney, just two miles from
Cirencester. Still living with them
was their daughter Mary Collett, who was 18, and their son Frederick Collett,
age 15, who was already a plough boy working on a local farm. Both of the children were confirmed as
having been born at Eyford. Over the
following decade both Mary and Frederick departed, presumably to be married,
leaving just George, age 79, and Elizabeth, age 64, still living within the
Cirencester & South Cerney registration district at the time of the
census in 1891. It was also there two
years later that Elizabeth Collett died in May 1893, followed by George
Collett who died there during November 1897. |
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14N15 |
Joseph Collett |
Born in 1847
at Condicote |
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14N16 |
Oliver Emms Collett |
Born in 1849 at
Lower Swell |
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14N17 |
George Collett |
Born in 1854
at Lower Swell |
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14N18 |
James Collett |
Born in 1859
at Lower Swell |
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14N19 |
Mary Collett |
Born in 1862
at Eyford |
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14N20 |
Frederick Collett |
Born in 1865
at Eyford |
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14M20 |
Mary Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
January 1798. Following the death of
her father in 1818 Mary inherited a substantial sum of money upon reaching
the age of 21. Tragically she died
just four years later in 1823 aged 25. |
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14M21 |
Ann Collett was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water
on 11th December 1798. Following
the death of her father in 1818 Ann inherited a substantial sum of money upon
reaching the age of 21. After the
tragic death of her younger married sister Elizabeth Marshall (below), Anne
married her widowed brother-in-law Stephen Marshall at Bourton during August
1822 and took over the rearing of her nephew Thomas Collett Marshall, who was
born around the end of 1819. A few
years after they were married Stephen found himself in financial difficulties
and was sentenced to a term in Gloucester debtors’ prison sometime between
1828 and 1830. After his release from
gaol the couple, together with Stephen’s son Thomas, moved to |
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14M22 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1800. Following the death of her
father in 1818 |
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14N21 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1820 |
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14M23 |
Martha Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1802 and she died on 7th December 1810. She was buried in the family grave at St
Lawrence’s |
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14M24
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Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1805. His father died when Thomas was
only thirteen years old and under the terms of his Will, and as his oldest
son, Thomas inherited all of the lands and property within his father’s
estate upon reaching 21 years of age. Five
years later in 1831 Thomas married Mary Ransford who was born in 1803. By the time of the first national census in
June 1841 Thomas and Mary were both aged 35 and were living at Bourton with
six of their first seven children, all of whom had been born there. Seventeen years earlier Henry Collett (Ref.
29M1) married Elizabeth Ransford at nearby Turkdean. See Part 29 – The Turkdean to Australia
Line. |
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The
family of Thomas and Mary in 1841 was made up of Thos Collett, who was nine, |
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Ten
years later Thomas and Mary were still living at Bourton. The 1851 Census recorded that 46 years old Thomas
was a cattle salesman and his wife Mary was 47, both having been born at
Bourton. With them were five of their
children, again all born at Bourton, and they were Arthur Collett, age 13,
Emily Collett, age 11, Henrietta Collett, who was nine, Susan Collett who was
8, and Alphea Collett who was four.
Completing the household was 19 years old servant Sarah Beckley of
Notgrove. |
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By
1861 the family living at Bourton had reduced to just mother Mary, aged 56 and
a farmer’s wife, and her daughters Emily Collett, age 21 and Mary Collett,
age 19, who was Henrietta in the previous census returns. Her husband Thomas was not in Bourton on
the day of the census and eight years later on 4th October 1869 he
died and was buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. The headstone that marks his grave reads
“In Loving Memory of Thomas Collett who died |
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As
a consequence, in the 1871 Census, Mary was described as a widow of 67 and an
annuitant, and living with her was her daughter Mary who was 29. Following the death of her husband and
sometime after April 1871, the widow Mrs Mary Collett married long-term
family friend |
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However,
that second marriage for Mary was fairly short lived, as John Beale had died
within a few years, as confirmed by the 1881 Census in which Mary Beale
formerly Collett was once again a widow.
The census recorded that retired Mary aged 77 was living at the
Butcher’s Shop in the High Street at Bourton.
Living with her was her 38-year old unmarried daughter Susan B
Collett, also listed as retired. What
is of further interest in the 1881 Census was that Mary’s younger brother
Alfred Ransford aged 66 and his family were living next door to the Butcher’s
Shop in the High Street at Bourton where Mary lived. |
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Mary
Collett nee Ransford died at Bourton seven years later on 13th
July 1888 and was buried with her first husband Thomas Collett. The gravestone that had borne his
inscription (see above) then had one added for Mary. This reads “Also of Mary Beale relict of
the above who died |
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14N22 |
Thomas Collett |
Baptised on
20.03.1832 |
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14N23 |
Mary Elizabeth Collett |
Born on
28.03.1833 |
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14N24 |
John Collett |
Born on
17.10.1835 |
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14N25 |
Ann Elizabeth Collett |
Born on
01.01.1837 |
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14N26 |
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1838 |
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14N27 |
Emily Collett |
Born in 1839 |
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14N28 |
Mary Henrietta Collett |
Born on
14.04.1841 |
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14N29 |
Susan Beale Collett |
Born on
04.12.1842 |
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14N30 |
Esther Ransford Collett |
Born in 1844 |
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14N31 |
Alphea James Collett |
Born in 1846 |
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14M25 |
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Following
the death of his wife, |
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One
such letter written, by his second wife, stated that she did not wish to be
burdened with her late husband’s four children from his previous
marriage. That resulted in the
children being placed in the care of the family and a little while later two
of them were admitted into an orphanage in Bristol. Sadly the bulk of John’s estate was
inherited by his second wife and their son John, with a maximum of
thirty-five pounds being left to each of his four earlier children. During his life John Collett senior is
believed to have work as a publican and a farm bailiff. |
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14N32 |
Emma Elizabeth Collett |
Baptised on 03.06.1838 |
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14N33 |
Ann Mary Collett |
Born on 18.09.1841 |
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14N34 |
Robert Collett |
Baptised on
22.06.1843 |
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14N35 |
Thomas Collett |
Born on 08.01.1846 |
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14N36 |
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Born around
1848 |
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14M26
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Henrietta Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1811. Following the death of her
father in 1818 Henrietta inherited a substantial sum of money upon reaching
the age of 21. Henrietta married
Charles J Fox who was a butcher. The
couple lived in |
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14M27
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Robert Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1813. Following the death of his
father in 1818 Robert would have inherited a substantial sum of money upon
reaching the age of 21. However, at
the age of just 19 he died at Bourton on 9th May 1832. A headstone in the |
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14M28
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Emma Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1816. Following the death of her
father in 1818 Emma stood to inherit a substantial sum of money upon reaching
the age of 21. Tragically however,
just like her brother Robert (above), Emma also failed to receive her
inheritance when she died at Bourton on 24th February 1834. With her death closely following that of
her brother she was buried in the same grave as him, the headstone carrying
both of their names. (see
Headstone Epitaphs) |
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14N1 |
John Collett was born at Church Lench in
Worcestershire during 1831, the son of John Collett from Badsey and his wife Jane
from Atch Lench. In 1841, at the age
of nine years, John was the only child living with his parents in the Evesham
area which included Church Lench and Atch Lench. By the time of the next census in 1851, he
had already left the home of his parents in Atch Lench, but was still living in
nearby area, when it was confirmed that he was 19 and from Church Lench. John was an agricultural labourer and
during the next few years he married Hannah, with whom he is known to have
had at least six children. |
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For
the census in 1861 John Collett from Church Lench was still living there with
his wife Hannah and their first two children.
John was 28, Hannah was 24, Ann Collett was three and Emma Collett was
one year old. During the next decade
the family left Church Lench and by 1871 they were living at Atch Lench where
five of their six children had been born.
According to the census return completed in 1871 it was only the
couple’s first child who had been born at Church Lench, where Hannah had also
been born. The census that year
described the family living in a cottage in Atch Lench, within the parish of
Church Lench, as John Collett, age 38 and from Atch Lench, Hannah who was 35,
Ann 14, Emma 11, Jane 9 – presumably named after John’s mother, Caroline who
was six, Ellen who was three and John William Collett who was one year old. |
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No
further children were added to the family after that time, although it is
possible that Hannah, who died during the next few years, did so during
childbirth, the child not surviving the ordeal also. By 1881 widower John Collett, age 48 and
from Church Lench, was still living in Atch Lench with just his two youngest
children. They were Ellen who was 14,
and John W Collett who was 10 and already employed as an agricultural labourer
like his father. Ellen was very likely
acting as housekeeper. |
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Also
living very nearby in Atch Lench was John’s daughter Jane Collett who was 19
and employed as a general domestic servant at the home of miller George
Bomford and his wife and large family.
In 1851 John’s parents were living in the next property to the Bomford
family in Atch Lench, so it seems likely that that was a long association
between to two families. |
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On
the basis that all of his daughters left home to be married, by 1891 John
Collett, age 57, was still living at Atch Lench, but with just his son for
company. By then, the census recorded
John W Collett as being 21. Not long
after that John William Collett became a married man and it may have been
just after that when John went to live with his married daughter Emma at
Salford Priors in Warwickshire. John
Collett from Church Lench was 67 and a general labourer and the father-in-law
of Joseph Sollis, the husband of Emma.
It was therefore most likely that it was while he was living there
with his daughter that John Collett died during the first decade of the new
century. |
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14O1 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1856
at Church Lench |
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14O2 |
Emma Collett |
Born in 1859
at Atch Lench |
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14O3 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1861
at Atch Lench |
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14O4 |
Caroline
Collett |
Born in 1864
at Atch Lench |
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14O5 |
Ellen Collett |
Born in 1867
at Atch Lench |
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14O6 |
John William Collett |
Born in 1869
at Atch Lench |
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14N3 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Upper Slaughter where she
was baptised on 26th February 1837. In 1851 she was 14 and ten years later she
was listed as being aged 24 and a needlewoman born at Upper Slaughter. At that time she was living with the family
of agricultural labourer George Wilcox aged 51 and of Upper Slaughter. With her was her daughter Ann E Collett
aged five months. |
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14O7
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Ann Elizabeth
Collett |
Born in
November 1860 |
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14N4 |
Thomas Collett was born at Upper Slaughter and was
baptised there on 4th November 1838. By the time of the census in 1851 he was 12
years old, when he was living at home with his parents in Upper Slaughter. Ten years later Thomas was an unmarried
carpenter at the age of 22 and was living with his widowed father and master
carpenter Thomas Collett at his Upper Slaughter home. It was during the next three years that
Thomas married Elizabeth Fort who had been born at Stow-on-the-Wold in
1841. For the first few years of the
married life the couple remained at Upper Slaughter where their first two
children were born. By the end of the
1860s Thomas’ work had taken the family from Gloucestershire to Reading,
where the couple’s third child was born, and where the family was living at
the time of the census in 1871. |
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The
census for the St Mary district of Reading listed the family as Thomas
Collett, age 32, Elizabeth F Collett, age 30, and their three children
Cecilia A E Collett who was five, Samuel A H Collett who was four, and Alice
K Collett who was not yet one year old.
Within the next four years the family left Reading and moved in to
London, and it was at Brixton that Elizabeth presented Thomas with their next
two children, although shortly after the family was living in Peckham when
their last child was born. |
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According
to the census in 1881, Thomas Collett from Upper Slaughter was recorded as
being 48, which may be a transcription error for 42. His occupation was that of a wood stainer
(painter) and he and his family were living at 7 Buckingham Villas in
Camberwell, Surrey. Living there with
him was his wife Elizabeth F Collett, age 40 of Stow-on-the-Wold, and their
six children Cecilia A E Collett who was 15, Samuel A Collet who was 14,
Alice K Collett who was 10, Otto F Collett who was four, Amos T Collett who
was three, and Rosella N Collett who was one year old. |
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The
family’s move to Camberwell may have been influenced by Thomas’ cousin |
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Thomas’
wife may well have been pregnant with the couple’s seventh child on the day
of the 1881 Census, since later that year she gave birth to another son, and
he was followed five years later by their last child. By the time of the census in 1891 the
family was living in the Wandsworth & Clapham area of London. Curiously their surname was recorded with
an additional e and the ages of both Thomas and Elizabeth were noted the same
as they were ten years earlier. Thomas
Collette was 42, and his wife Elizabeth Collette was 40, whereas they would
have been 52 and 50. |
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By
that time in their life, the couple’s two eldest children would have been 25
and 24 respectively, and were no longer living with Thomas and
Elizabeth. The children who were
living there were Alice Collette, age 20, Amos Collette who was 13, Rose
Collette who was 11, Victor Collette who was nine, and Harold Collette who
was four years old. The couple’s other
absent child, Otto Francis Collett, age 14, was living separately close by in
the same Wandsworth & Clapham area. |
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However,
something strange happened to the family before the end of the decade,
because Thomas and Elizabeth were not recorded together at the time of the
census in 1901, and Elizabeth was living in the village of Shoreham, just
north of Sevenoaks in Kent. She was
described as Elizabeth Forty Collett, age 56 (sic) from Stow-on-the-Wold and,
although she was married, she was living on her own means, with just two of
her children. They were naval seaman
Otto Francis Keil Collett, age 24 from London, and Amos Thomas Collett, age
22, a joiner also from London. |
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To
supplement her income, Elizabeth had two boarders staying with her at
Shoreham Street, and they were St George Bargise, a widow of 55 who was a
dentist from Mauritius, and Eugene Lloyd age 68 who was also from Mauritius. Where Thomas Collett was at that time, has
not been determined, and nor has the whereabouts of his two youngest
children, even though it is known that Victor was still alive in 1911. Elizabeth Fort Collett from
Stow-on-the-Wold died while living in Surrey during 1923. |
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14O8
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Cecilia Olivia E Collett |
Born in 1865
at Upper Slaughter |
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14O9
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Samuel Alfred H Collett |
Born in 1866
at Upper Slaughter |
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14O10
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Alice K
Collett |
Born in 1870
at Reading |
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14O11
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Otto Francis Keil Collett |
Born in 1876
at Brixton |
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14O12
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Amos Thomas Collett |
Born in 1877
at Brixton |
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14O13
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Rosella N
Collett |
Born in 1879
at Peckham |
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14O14
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Victor Collett |
Born in 1881
at Camberwell |
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14O15
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Harold
Collett |
Born in 1886
at |
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14N6 |
Harriett Collett was born at Upper Slaughter where she
was baptised on 26th June 1842 and where in 1851 she was 9 years
of age. Ten years later she was
working as a housemaid aged 18 at the home of Edward Francis Witts the Rector
and Justice of the Peace Rector for Upper Slaughter. Harriett was just one of
eight servants serving the Rector, his wife and their only son. Rector Edward Francis Witts was the son of
the Reverend Francis Edward Witts the author of “The Diary of a Cotswold
Parson”. |
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14N7 |
Sarah Collett was born at Upper Slaughter around
1846 as confirmed by the 1851 Census in which she was four years old and
living with her parents at Upper Slaughter.
Ten years on at the age of 15, Sarah was noted in the census that year
as being a carpenter like her brother Thomas and father Thomas who was a
master carpenter. |
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14N10 |
Amy Collett was born at Upper Slaughter around
1850 and was aged 1 in the 1851 Census for that village. By 1861 Amy was listed in the census as
being 13 and was living were her family at Upper Slaughter. However, a further ten years on when Amy was
21 she was working as a housemaid and was a visitor at the Upper Slaughter
home of the Rector and Justice of the Peace Edward Francis Witts. Curiously, ten years earlier Amy’s sister
Harriett (above) had been in service there.
Also living and working there as a housemaid in April 1871 with Amy
Collett was 18 years old Sarah Anne Cambray the eldest daughter of Jane |
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14N11 |
JOHN KYTE COLLETT was born at Longbridge House in Cowl
Street, Shepton Mallet in 1836, the only son of Robert Hanman Collett of
Bourton-on-the-Water and his wife Julia Speed of Shepton Mallet. His second forename derived from his
paternal grandmother’s maiden name – see Ref. 14L7. He
was just two years old when his father died, following which his mother moved
the family to live at a smaller property in Garston Street where John was
five years old at the time of the Shepton Mallet census of 1841. He was still living there in 1851 when he
was 14 and attending the Grammar School in Charlton Road in the town. |
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On
completing his education, John became an apprentice to a linen draper in
Bristol, before rejoining his mother and sister Ann (below) who had left
Shepton Mallet by then, and were living in Cardiff. It was also in Cardiff that he opened his
own grocery shop in St Mary Street, following his mother’s example when she
transferred her grocery shop from Shepton Mallet to Cardiff a few years
earlier. John was a vegetarian and was
a non-smoker for all his adult life, nor did he drink tea or coffee. |
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By
the time of the census in 1861, John K Collett, age 25 and from Shepton
Mallet, was confirmed as living in Cardiff with his widowed mother Julia and
his sister Ann. In addition to his own
business in St Mary Street in Cardiff, is also established that John also became
a senior partner of the well-known firm of Collett, Whitefield and Co,
wholesale provision merchants, trading internationally, much like many of his
ancestors. |
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It
was around eight years later, at the age of 33, when John Kyte Collett
married Sarah Ann Orledge Reeves at Pilton Church near Shepton Mallet in
1869, she having been born there in 1841.
The marriage certificate described Sarah as the daughter of Thomas
White Reeves, a yeoman, while John’s father was recorded as Robert Collett,
deceased. Two years after they were
married the childless couple were still living in Cardiff, when John K
Collett was 35, and his wife Sarah A O Collett was 30. It was at Penarth, to the south of Cardiff,
that the couple were living five years later when their only child was born. |
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Five
years after that, and on the occasion of the census in 1881, John and Sarah
Collett were visiting the home of Sarah’s father Thomas White Reeves, the
details of the day being as follows: Thomas
White Reeves (Head of House), age 74 and from Pilton in Somerset, was a
widower employing two men and one boy on his 100 acre East Town farm at
Pilton. Still living with him was his unmarried
daughter Julia F Orledge Reeves, age 39 and also of Pilton, his grandson
Thomas William Reeves, age 14 from Christchurch in New Zealand, his daughter
Sarah Ann Orledge Collett, age 40 and born at Pilton, and her husband John
Kyte Collett, a provisions merchant from Shepton Mallet, who was 45. The household was completed by two domestic
servants. |
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Back
at the home of John and Sarah Collett at 20 Romilly Crescent at Llandaff near
Cardiff was their five years old daughter Edith Collett and the details
extracted from the 1881 census return for her are provided under her own
reference. Upon the publication during
the following year of the Kelly’s Directory for 1882, the company of John Kyte
Collett was listed as “Collett & Co, American and Canadian Importer of
235 Bute Street in Cardiff”. However,
by 1891 the company was trading under the name of “Collett and Isaacs of New
Street in Cardiff”, although no record of either John or Sarah, or their
daughter Edith, has been found in the census that year. |
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By
the time of the census in 1901, provision merchant John K Collett from
Shepton Mallet was 64, and living with him in Penarth was his wife Sarah A O
Collett who was 60 and from Pilton. It
is assumed that their daughter Edith was married by that time, since there is
no record of Edith Collett of Penarth who was around 24 years of age anywhere
in the census that year. However,
there were two likely married candidates; Edith Brain and Edith Llewellyn,
both of them born at Penarth, where they were also living. Ten years later in April 1911 John Kyte
Collett, age 75, was still living in the Penarth area with his wife Sarah A O
Collett who was 70 |
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On his retirement from business John Kyte Collett
devoted his energies to social and philanthropic work. He had always lived an active life and was
tireless in his advocacy of improved social and industrial conditions. During his life he wrote several remarkable
pamphlets on housing, land and educational problems. After the First World War he founded ‘The
Children’s League of Peace and Goodwill’ with a membership of tens of
thousands in all countries of the world, from Japan to Wales. He believed that world peace could only be
achieved from the nursery. All of the
children who joined the League were given a brass token, as shown below. |
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Figure 1 has the words: “Suffer the
little children to come unto me, for I am the good shepherd” On the reverse side is written: “This is a
token of membership of the Children’s League of Peace and Goodwill to all the
children of all the races” |
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It
was many years later that John Kyte Collett died on 16th October
1933 at the age of 97, and had continued working right up until that
time. Following his death his body was
eventually laid to rest in Cardiff where a headstone with the inscription
below marks the grave. |
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In Loving Memory of Sarah Ann Orledge Beloved Wife of John Kyte Collett Died March 18th 1922 aged
81 Also her beloved sister Julia Frances Orledge Reeves Died June 16th 1931 aged 89 Also of the above John Kyte Collett Formerly of Shepton Mallet Died October 16th 1933 aged
97 |
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One
interesting story relating to him, is that schoolboy John Kyte Collett
and his cousin, John Lewis who was also born at Cowl Street in Shepton Mallet
and the founder of the modern-day John Lewis Partnership, were evicted on
several occasions, together with many other children, from a field attached
to Langhorne House (now St Paul’s School), which was then owned by Mr Garton,
the owner of the Anglo Bavarian Brewery. |
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Much
has been written about John Kyte Collett and his achievements, one of which
is the establishment of Collett Park in Shepton Mallet in 1906, which was the
subject of a Collett reunion in June 2006 to celebrate the centenary of the
park. A photographic record of the
weekend’s events can be found on this website in the folder entitled Shepton
Mallet 2006. An earlier
Collett reunion took place in June 1996 and a written record of that event
can be found in the folder entitled Shepton Mallet 1996. |
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14O16 |
EDITH COLLETT |
Born in 1876 at
Penarth |
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14N12 |
Ann Mary Collett was born in 1838 at Shepton Mallet,
the only daughter of Robert Hanman Collett and Julia Speed. It was also in the same year that she was
born that Ann’s father died. So by the
time of the census in 1841 Ann Collett aged three years was living at Garston
Street in Shepton Mallet with her widowed mother and older brother John (above). Ten years later she and her family were
still living there, when Ann was 13. During
the 1850s Ann’s mother took Ann to live in Cardiff, where her brother joined
them following the completion of his apprenticeship. And it was in Cardiff that the three of
them were recorded in the census of 1861.
At that time Ann M Collett from Shepton Mallet was 23. |
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It
was seven years later that she married baptist minister the Reverend James
Cruickshank in 1868. They had two
children John, who was born in 1869 at Canton in Cardiff and Alice, who was born
in 1870 at Tellcarn in Devon. By the
time of the 1871 Census the four of them were living with Ann’s mother Julia
Collett at |
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According
to the census of 1881, Ann and James Cruickshank were living at Back Lane in
Crewkerne on the boundary between Somerset and Dorset. James was listed as a baptist minister who
was 45 and born in Scotland, while Ann Mary was aged 43 and born at Shepton
Mallet. Their children were given listed
as Alice Mary Cruickshank, who was born in 1870, Elsie Cruickshank, who was
born in 1872; and James Ryland Cruickshank, who was born in March 1881. See other Ryland references at 14I16 and
14M10. Also living with them at the
time of the census was Ann Mary’s widowed mother Julia Collett, who was 69
and from Shepton Mallet. |
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By
1891 only their son James R Cruickshank, age 10, was still living at
Crewkerne with Ann M Cruickshank, age 53, and her husband James who was
55. On that occasion the couple’s two
daughters were both living and working in Cardiff, where Alice M Cruickshank
was 21 and Elsie Cruickshank was 19.
It was Ann’s son James who eventually established a line of the
Cruickshank family in New Zealand. Ann
Mary Cruickshank nee Collett died nine years later in 1900. |
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In
2015 David George Rogers, born circa 1950, provided the following information
about Ann Mary’s daughter Elsie Cruickshank who was his paternal
grandmother. Elsie married Thomas
Rogers, a grocer, and they lived at 21 Windsor Terrace in Penarth. It was their son who was David’s father,
while Elsie Rogers nee Cruickshank died during 1952. |
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14N13 |
Robert Dalby was born at Bourton-on-the Water in
1838. He married Mary Barker of |
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14N14 |
Frances (Fanny) Jane
Dalby was born at
Shepton Mallet in 1842. She married
Edward John Jones of |
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14N15 |
Joseph Collett was born at Condicote, to the west of
Stow-on-the-Wold in 1847, and was the eldest child of George Collett of
Bourton-on-the-Water and Elizabeth Emms of Hazelton. Unlike his following two brothers, no
baptism record for Joseph has yet been found, so the first recording on him
was in the census of 1851 when he was three years old and living with his
family at Lower Swell. It was the
census return that gave his place of birth as Condicote. With no later record of Joseph having been
found anywhere in the subsequent census returns, it may be safe to assume
that he did not survive beyond childhood. |
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14N16 |
Oliver Emms Collett was born at Lower Swell in June 1849,
where he was baptised on 15th July 1849, the second child of
George Collett and his wife Elizabeth Emms.
In all of the later records in his life he was simply referred to as
Oliver Emms, including the census of 1851 when he was two years old and
living with his family at Lower Swell.
His place of birth on that occasion was recorded as Swell. He was still living with his parents in
1861, but by which time the family had moved to Longborough near Condicote
where Oliver’s older brother Joseph had been born. The census that year recorded Oliver
Collett, age 12, as the oldest of the three sons still living with George and
Elizabeth Collett. Ten years later
Oliver was working for the Great Western Railway in Gloucester, and the
census that year recorded him as Oliver Collett who was 22 and unmarried, and
residing in the Barton St Mary district of the city. |
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It
was his work on the railway that eventually took him north to Lancashire,
where he met and married his wife Martha Finney around 1877. Martha was born at Newton Le Willows in
1852 and was baptised at Newton-in-Makersfield on 29th August 1852,
the daughter of John and Eliza Finney.
Not long after they were married the couple lived in for a short while
in Liverpool, where their first child was born. By the time of the census in 1881, the
family had moved east to Widnes, and it was at 5 William Street that the
three of them were living on that day.
Oliver Collett, age 32 and from Lower Swell, was a railway engine
driver, his wife Martha, age 28, was from Newton-le-Willows, and their daughter
Gertrude Collett was just one year. |
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During
the next ten years three more daughters were born into the family which,
after living in Widnes for a very short while, moved the short distance to
Garston on the north side of the River Mersey, to the south of
Liverpool. It was while they were
living there that the next two children were born, and then towards to the
end of the decade the family moved again, that time to nearby Toxteth where
Oliver’s and Martha’s last daughter was born.
The family living in the Toxteth area in 1891 was made up of Oliver
Collett, who was 41, Martha Collett, who was 38, and their four daughters
Gertrude Collett who was 11, Ada M Collett who was eight, Martha Collett who
was six years old, and Jane Collett who was still under one year old. |
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Also at that same time in
1891, there were three other Colletts living in the Toxteth Park area, and
they were Charles C Collett, age 40, Betsey M Collett, age 30, and Sarah
Collett who was 22, although no connection to this family line has so far
been found with any of these. |
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It
was possibly through Oliver’s work on the railway that the family later moved
eastwards to Cheadle in Cheshire, since it was there that the family was
living in March 1901. Oliver from
Lower Swell was 52 and his occupation on that occasion was once again that of
a railway engine driver, while his wife Martha was 48 and from
Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire. By
that time only two of the couple’s four daughters were still living with them,
and they were Gertrude Collett, age 21, who was a dressmaker, and Martha Collett
who was 16 and an apprentice milliner. |
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After
another ten years Oliver and Martha were living in the Stockport area not far
from Cheadle, and still living with the couple were the same two unmarried
daughters. The census return for April
1911 listed the family as Oliver Collett, age 61, Martha Collett, age 57, and
daughters Gertrude Collett who was 31, and Martha Collett who was 26. |
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Of
their other two daughters, no record of Jane has been found at all, which may
suggest that she did not survive beyond childhood. There are however, records of two Ada Mary
who were both born at Garston in 1882 and both of them were living in the
West Derby area of Liverpool in 1911.
The first was married to John Joseph Newman and had a daughter
Kathleen who was born in 1907, while the second was married to Robert
Thurston Bushell with two sons, Robert Edgar born in 1902 and William Samuel
born in 1909. |
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During
the six and a half years after the census day in 1911 Martha Collett nee
Finney appears to have passed away, since Oliver Collett was living at 16
Stockport Road in Cheadle Heath when he died on 18th October
1917. His estate of Ł208 13 Shillings
8d was subject to probate at Chester on 13th December that same
year in which his two daughters Gertrude and Martha were mentioned. Both were married by that time, although
Martha was already a widow perhaps as a result of losing her husband in the
Great War. |
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14O17 |
Gertrude Collett |
Born in 1879
at Liverpool |
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14O18 |
Ada Mary
Collett |
Born in 1882
at Garston, Merseyside |
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14O19 |
Martha Collett |
Born in 1884
at Garston, Merseyside |
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14O20 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1890
at Toxteth Park, Liverpool |
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14N17 |
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Like
his older brother Oliver (above), George also worked for the Great Western
Railway and it was following his move to Swindon that he met and married
Kezia Duck at Swindon in November 1874. Kezia was born at Wroughton near Swindon in
November 1856, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Duck. She was exactly 18 years old when she
married George, whose own age was recorded as 20 years and 3 months. Once married the couple settled in the
Stratton area of the town where their first three children were born prior to
the census in 1881. On that occasion
the family was recorded residing in a dwelling on the High Street in Stratton
St Margaret, Swindon. George Collett,
age 26 and from Lower Swell, was employed as a railway goods guard. |
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Listed
at the address with him, was his wife Kezia Collett, age 24 and from
Wroughton near Swindon, and their three children Arthur Collett who was six
and attending the local school, Lilley Collett who was five, and Edith Collett
who was two years old, who were all born at Stratton. Also living with the family was thirty-one
years old boarder Joseph Green of Oldbury near Birmingham, who was a
carpenter. |
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Kezia
was very likely with-child on the day of the census in 1881, since later that
same year she gave birth to a second son, after the family had moved to Gorse
Hill in Swindon, and he was followed by a further three children who were also
born at Gorse Hill. The Gorse Hill
census of 1891 listed the larger family as George Collett 36, Kezia Collett 34,
Arthur Collett 17, Edith Collett 12, George Collett 9, Ernest Collett 5,
Beatrice Collett who was two, and Elsie Collett who was not yet one year old. Curiously the census return listed all of
the children in error as having been born at Gorse Hill. The couple’s missing daughter Lilley
Collett, who was fifteen years old and from Swindon, had finished her
schooling and had entered into domestic service with a family in the
Hungerford & Lambourne registration district, across the county boundary
in Berkshire, where she was recorded as Lily Collett. |
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The
majority of the family was still living at Gorse Hill in March 1901. George Collett of Lower Swell was 46 and was
employed by the Great Western Railway as a Goods Guards. Kezia Collett of Wroughton was 44, and
living with them were their three youngest children. They were Ernest Collett, age 15, Beatrice Collett
13, and Elsie Collett who was 11, all three of them confirmed as born at
Gorse Hill. By that time the couple’s
two oldest daughters were married, while no trace of their eldest son Arthur
has been found in Great Britain in 1901, nor again in 1911. The couple’s second eldest son George Collett
junior, had already left the family home and, like his father, was in the
employment of the Great Western Railway and was living in Reading by March
1901. The youngest male member of the
family, Ernest, had also left school by that time and was working as a ‘coll
boy’. |
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Over
the next few years all of the children left the family home to find their own
way in the world, and by the end of the first decade of the new century
George’s and Kezia’s son George had returned from Reading and was once again living
with them in Swindon. At the time of
the Swindon census in April 1911, George Collett from Lower Swell was 56, his
wife Kezia Collett from Wroughton was 53, and their unmarried son George
Henry Collett was 29. |
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14O21 |
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1874
at Stratton St Margaret |
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14O22 |
Lilley Amelia Collett |
Born in 1875
at Stratton St Margaret |
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14O23 |
Edith Emily Collett |
Born in 1878
at Stratton St Margaret |
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14O24 |
George Henry Collett |
Born in 1881
at Gorse Hill, Swindon |
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14O25 |
Ernest Albert Collett |
Born in 1885
at Gorse Hill, Swindon |
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14O26 |
Beatrice Frances Collett |
Born in 1887
at Gorse Hill, Swindon |
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14O27 |
Elsie Frances Collett |
Born in 1889
at Gorse Hill, Swindon |
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14N18 |
James Collett was born at Lower Swell in 1859, the
son of George and Elizabeth Collett.
Not long after he was born his father’s work as a farm bailiff
resulted in the family first moving to nearby Longborough, where James
Collett was two years old at the time of the census in 1861, and later to
Cirencester where they were living in 1871 when he was 12. |
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Around
the end of the 1870s James married Mary who was born at Warminster in
Wiltshire in 1855. It would appear
from the next three census records that they did not have any children. In 1881 they were living at Upton
Scudamore, just north of Warminster, where James Collett gave an incorrect
age and place of birth when he said he was 24 and from Stow-on-the-Wold. He would appear to have inflated his age
out of embarrassment of being much younger than his wife Mary who was
26. At that time he was working as a carter
and an agricultural labourer. |
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|
|
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|
They
were still living in the Warminster area ten years later when James was 32
and Mary was 35, but ten years after that they were living in the Bath area
of Somerset. By then James Collett,
age 42 and from Lower Swell, was a miller’s labourer, while his wife Mary was
46. It was also in the same area that
the couple was living in April 1911 when James from Lower Swell was 52 and
Mary from Warminster was 55. |
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|
|
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|
|
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14N19 |
Mary Collett was born at Eyford within the parish
of Upper Slaughter during 1862, the only known daughter of George Collett and
his wife Elizabeth Emms. Before 1870
her parents took the family to living in the Cirencester area, where they
were living in 1871 when Mary Collett was eight years old. Ten
years after that, the next census in 1881 recorded Mary Collett of Eyford as
18 and with no occupation, when she was living at Cerney Fields in South
Cerney with her parents and younger brother Frederick (below). By 1891 Mary Collett, age 27 and from
Eyford, was living and working in the Wallingford registration district in
Oxfordshire. Only one other person
with the name Collett was recorded in that area on that occasion, and she was
Amelia Collett who was 16 and from Eynsham whose family details are contained
in Part 28, Ref. 28O78. Whatever
happened to Mary Collett after 1891 is not known, but her absence from the
next two census returns under the name of Mary Collett may suggest that she
was married. |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||||||
14N20 |
Frederick Collett was born at Eyford just north of Upper
Slaughter in 1865, the youngest child of George and Elizabeth Collett, as confirmed
in the 1871 and 1881 Censuses when he was five years old at Cirencester and
15 years of age while living at Cerney Fields in South Cerney with his
parents and only sister Mary (above). Even
at the age of 15 he was already in work, his first job being that of a plough
boy, although he later became a carter working a farm. |
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|
|
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|
The
only Frederick Collett born within the county of Gloucestershire in the
census of 1891, was living and working in the Stretford district of
Manchester. That may well have been
Frederick from Eyford, since his older brother Oliver (above) and his family
were living in Lancashire at that time.
However, it is established that he was still living in the Cirencester
area towards the middle of the 1890s. |
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|
|
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|
Frederick
Collett married Minnie Midwinter at St Matthews Church in the village of
Coates, near Cirencester, on 25th December 1897. The parish register recorded that Frederick
Collett was 31 and a carter of South Cerney, and the son of George Collett,
farm bailiff. Minnie was born at
Aldsworth in 1874, and was the daughter of agricultural labourer John
Midwinter of Aldsworth and his wife Sarah of Sherborne. In 1881 Minnie was six years old when she
was living with her parents and her two siblings George Midwinter and Rosetta
Midwinter at Aldsworth. |
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|
|
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|
The
couple’s first child was possibly a honeymoon baby, and was born during the
year following their marriage, at a time when Frederick and Minnie were
living at South Cerney. Shortly after
the birth, the family moved to Ampney Crucis, where their second child was
born. The census in March 1901 for
Ampney Crucis listed the family as Frederick Collett, age 35 and from Eyford,
who was a carter working on a farm, his wife Minnie who was 26 and from
Aldsworth, and their two children Mabel Collett, who was two years old and
had been born at South Cerney, and Frederick Collett who was just three
months old, who had been born after the family had settled in Ampney Crucis. |
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|
|
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|
It
would appear from the next census in 1911 that Frederick and Minnie’s eldest
daughter Mabel did not survive beyond childhood. It may have been that loss to the family which
prompted the move away from Ampney Crucis, since by March 1911 they were
living within the Winchcombe area of Gloucestershire. Also by that time the family had been
extended with three additional children.
So the full family was then made up of Frederick Collett, age 45,
Minnie Collett 36, Frederick George Collett who was 10, Gertrude Ethel Collett
who was seven, Elsie Collett who was three, and Phyllis Mary Collett who was
one year old. Once again Frederick’s
place of birth was confirmed as Eyford.
It was around six or seven years later Frederick Collett senior died
at the age of 52, which could place the time of his death in the latter half
of 1917 or during the early months of 1918. |
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|
|
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|
14O28 |
Mabel Collett |
Born in 1898
at South Cerney; died b/f 1911 |
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|
14O29 |
Frederick George Collett |
Born in
December 1900 at Ampney Crucis |
|||||||
|
14O30 |
Gertrude
Ethel Collett |
Born in 1903 |
|||||||
|
14O31 |
Elsie Collett |
Born in 1907 |
|||||||
|
14O32 |
Phyllis Mary
Collett |
Born in 1909 |
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|
|
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|
|
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14N21 |
Thomas Collett Marshall was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
either late 1819 or early 1820.
Shortly after he was born his mother Elizabeth Marshall nee Collett
died and his father married Anne Collett his sister-in-law. It would appear that Thomas later married
and had a son Charles Marshall born at Bourton in 1854. By 1881 Thomas was a widower aged 61 and
was a hawker with his 26-year old married son Charles who was also a
hawker. At that time (April 1881) the
pair of them were staying at the Dove Inn in St James Street in Norwich, the
establishment of licenced victualler John Ford of Norwich. |
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|
|
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|
|
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14N22 |
Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water and
was baptised there on 20th March 1832. He married Ann E Walker of London in 1864
and the marriage produced twelve children, all of which were born after the
family had moved to Dudley near Birmingham.
At the time of the next census in April 1871 the family was living at
Dudley where Thomas was 39, his wife Ann was 31, and their child by then were
Thomas aged five, Harriet aged four, and Howson who was under one year
old. Their missing daughter Amelia had
died during the previous year. |
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|
|
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|
Seven
more children were added to the family over the next ten years. So by 1881 the family living at St James
Road in Dudley were described as follows.
Thomas 49 was a gas manager from Bourton and his wife Ann Eliza was 41
of London, and their children were Thomas 15, Harriet 14, the twins Mary and
Lillian who were both aged eight, Eleanor was seven, Edgar was five, Raymond was
three and Harold Collett was two years old.
Supporting the family were local girl Esther Rollason 23, a
cook/domestic and Rachel Margaret Brookes aged 20 a nurse/domestic from
Bushbury in Staffordshire. |
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|
|
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|
The
family was extended by two further children after April 1881 before Thomas
Collett died in 1888. Following her
husband’s death Ann moved to Hastings on the south coast and it was there
that she was living with some of her daughters in 1891. The census that year recorded that Ann
Collett was 51 when she was living within the St Mary in the Castle district
of the town. The daughters who were
all listed as having been born at Dudley were Harriet who was 24, Lillian who
was 18, Eleanor who was 17 and Annie who was eight years of age. It seems likely that Ann later moved along
the coast to Worthing where she was living with just her daughter Annie in
1901. |
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|
|
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|
It may be interest that
there are details of many more Colletts who were born at Dudley contained
within Part 48 – The Dudley West Midlands Line, although there is only a
tenuous link to this family line. |
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|
|
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|
14O33 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1865
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O34 |
Harriet Rose Collett |
Born in 1867
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O35 |
Amelia Frances Collett |
Born in 1868
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O36 |
Howson Collett |
Born in 1870
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O37 |
Mary Augusta Collett twin |
Born in 1872
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O38 |
Lillian Louise Collett twin |
Born in 1872
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O39 |
Eleanor Frances Collett |
Born in 1874
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O40 |
Edgar Howson Collett |
Born in 1875
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O41 |
Raymond Collett |
Born in 1877
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O42 |
Harold Collett |
Born in 1879
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O43 |
Annie Adelaide Collett |
Born in 1881
at Dudley |
|||||||
|
14O44 |
Annie Kathleen Collett |
Born in 1882
at Dudley |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||||||
14N23 |
Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 28th
March 1833 where she died the following year in 1834. (see Headstone Epitaphs) |
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|
|
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|
|
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14N24 |
|
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|
|
|||||||||
|
By
1881 John and the family had moved to |
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|
|
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|
The
house would have been a busy place as, in addition to the seven members of
the family, there was also a visitor 26 years old Alice Bromley from Stoke
Poges, and two servants, housemaid Elizabeth Harwood 24 of Southwark and
nurse Helen Pepper 20 of Abingdon in Berkshire. The two oldest members of John and Sarah’s
original family were missing from the family home in 1881. Emily was a boarder at The Ferns School for
Girls in Islington, while Oliver was attending a grammar school in |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
It
may be interesting to note that another |
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|
|
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|
Curiously
ten years later in April 1911, John was not listed in the census return as
living with his wife on that occasion.
Instead Cecilia Helen Collett of Stowmarket, age 68, was living in the
Camberwell district of London. Meanwhile
her husband John Collett of Bourton-on-the-Water, who was seventy-five, was
living in the Wandsworth area of London with his younger sister Susan Beale
Collett (below). |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Today
a single tombstone marks the graves and carries the following inscription “In
Loving Memory of |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
14O45 |
Emily Ann Collett |
Born in 1866 |
|||||||
|
14O46 |
Oliver Charles Collett |
Born in 1867 |
|||||||
|
14O47 |
William Henry Collett |
Born in 1869 |
|||||||
|
14O48 |
John Sydney Collett |
Born in 1870 |
|||||||
|
14O49 |
Cecilia Dora Ransford Collett |
Born on
27.11.1876 |
|||||||
|
14O50 |
Bernard Collett |
Born in 1878 |
|||||||
|
14O51 |
Aubrey Ransford Collett |
Born on
21.05.1880 |
|||||||
|
14O52 |
Arthur Stanley Collett |
Born in 1881 |
|||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N25 |
Ann Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 1st
January 1837 and she died there on 26th April 1867. She was buried at St Lawrence’s Church in
Bourton in the family grave alongside her three sisters, Emily Collett, Mary
Henrietta Collett, and Esther Ransford Collett. (see Headstone Epitaphs) |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N26 |
Arthur Collett, who may have also been William Arthur
Collett, was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1838. He married Miss Hobbs with whom he had
three children before he died shortly after his fortieth birthday in 1879. Curiously to date, no record of the family
has so far been discovered within the census in 1881, or any subsequent
census returns. |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
14O53 |
Mary
Henrietta Susan Collett |
Born in 1871 |
|||||||
|
14O54 |
Sally
Ransford Collett |
Born in 1874 |
|||||||
|
14O55 |
William
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1876 |
|||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N27 |
Emily Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1839/40 and she died there on 6th February 1866. She was buried in the |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N28 |
Mary Henrietta Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on
14th April 1841, the daughter of Thomas Collett and his wife Mary
Ransford. It the census conducted in
June 1841 she was recorded as Henrietta Collett aged two months, and ten
years later she was once again Henrietta Collett, then aged nine years. In 1834 her older sister Mary, whom she
never knew, died when she was around one year old, and it may have been that
sad event or the fact her mother was also Mary, that then resulted in
Henrietta being later referred to simply as Mary Collett. |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
It
was as Mary Collett age 19 that she was living with her parents in 1861, and
ten years later she was Mary Collett, age 29, when she was the only child
living with her widowed mother in 1871.
It is therefore very curious that there appears to be no record of
Mary Collett or Henrietta Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water anywhere in the
country at the time of the census in1881, except the one listed below who age
was different by exactly ten years.
Furthermore the date of the death of Mary Henrietta Collett took place
at Bourton on 8th May 1884, over three years before the said
Henrietta Walker nee Collett below. Mary
Henrietta Collett was buried in the family grave at St Lawrence’s Church in
Bourton together with her three sisters, Ann Elizabeth Collett, Emily
Collett, and Esther Ransford Collett. (see
Headstone Epitaphs) |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||||||
|
It might be of interest
to insert here that another Henrietta Collett born at Bourton-on-the-Water
around ten years after Mary Henrietta Collett had her throat cut by her
husband saddler Joseph Walker on 18th September 1887 at their home
in Middle Row, Chipping Norton. No record
of the earlier life of that particular member of the Collett family has been
found, so it is possible that Collett was the name from an earlier
marriage. What is known in that
Henrietta Collett married widower Joseph Walker during the first quarter of
1877 at Chipping Norton, where Joseph’s wife Charlotte Gillett had died
during the previous year leaving him with three young children. |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
Over the ten years that
they were married it was not a happy household since, sometime after the
census in 1881, Joseph’s eldest son committed suicide for which Joseph blamed
his wife. At the time of that census
the couple and Joseph’s three children were living at Pembroke Street in
Chipping Norton. Joseph Walker from
Whichford was 39, Henrietta Walker from Bourton was 29, Fred Walker was 13,
Julia Walker was 11, and Joseph Walker was eight years old. |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
On 18th
September 1887, while Henrietta was looking after the two children of a
relative, Joseph was out drinking, and on his return he discovered money
missing from his pocket. He suspected
his wife of stealing from him and, in a drunken rage, slit her throat, while
his son Joseph was putting his two cousins to bed. He was promptly arrested by the local
police, but still drunk, he boasted “I have done it. I think I made a good job of it.” Joseph Walker was subsequently found guilty
of the murder of Henrietta Walker was hanged at Oxford Castle during November
1887. |
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|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N29 |
Susan Beale Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 4th
December 1842. She never married and
sometime during the 1870s she assumed the name of Susan Beale Collett
following the second marriage of her mother to |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N30 |
Esther Ransford Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in
1844 where she died two years later in 1846.
She was buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton in the family grave
with her three sisters, Ann Elizabeth Collett, Emily Collett, and Mary
Henrietta Collett. (see
Headstone Epitaphs) |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N31 |
Alphea James Collett, listed as a daughter in 1881, was
born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1846 and she died in 1903. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N32 |
Emma Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water
on 13th June 1838, the eldest child of John and Mary Collett. Her mother died when Emma was eight years
old, followed two years later by her father, at which time Emma and her
brother Robert (below) went to live with their grandfather Robert Strong at
Stow-on-the-Wold. Unfortunately when
Emma’s father died, his second wife and her son inherited the majority of the
Collett family estate, with a legacy of just thirty-five pounds being left to
Emma and her three siblings. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N33 |
Ann Mary Collett was born at Aston Blank (known as Cold Aston today) on 18th
September 1841. Upon the death of
Ann’s mother and then her father when she was just five years and seven years
of age respectively Ann Mary and her brother Thomas (below) were taken into
the care of their grandmother Ann Collett nee Tilling (Ref. 14L11). |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Sadly
when the children’s grandmother died only a year later in 1849, Ann and
Thomas were placed in the care of the |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
All
her life Ann had doubts about when and where she was born. In 1909 she decided to try to seek
confirmation by writing to the |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
In
April 1911 Ann Mary Russell and her husband John Russell were confirmed as
living in Croydon, when Ann was sixty-nine and John was 67. Ann Mary Russell nee Collett died on 6th
December 1921 at the age of 80 years while she was still a resident of
Croydon. Ann Mary Collett was the
great great grandmother of Rita Garnett who kindly provided the new
information that has enabled this family line to be updated. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N34 |
Robert Collett was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water
on 22nd June 1843.
Following the death of his mother when aged just three years, and his
father two years later, Robert and his sister Emma Elizabeth (above) went to
live with their grandfather Robert Strong at Stow-on-the-Wold. No trace of Robert has been found in the
national census of 1881. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14N35 |
Thomas Collett was born at Burford in Oxfordshire on 8th
January 1846. Thomas’s mother died
when he was only four months old and she was followed two years later by his
father. At that time in 1848 Thomas,
together with his sister Ann (above), went to live with their grandmother Ann
Collett nee Tilling, but tragically she died in 1849. Following the death, Thomas and Ann were
placed in an orphanage in Bristol that was the Muller School. They entered together on 1st
November 1849 and Thomas was the first to leave in 1860 when he went to live
with his grandfather Robert Strong at Stow-on-the-Wold. It seems highly likely that Thomas remained
living in the Stow area for the rest of his life, since the death of a Thomas
Collett was recorded at Stow register office (Ref. 6a 249) during the second
quarter of 1911 at the age of 66. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14O2 |
Emma Collett was born in 1859 at Atch Lench,
although when she was one year old she was living with her family at Church
Lench. Ten years later, at the age of 11,
she and her family were residing in Atch Lench, but had left the family home
by 1881, perhaps to be married. It is
possible that she was married twice in her short life, since by the time of
the census in 1901 she and her much younger husband and their two young daughters
were living in Salford Priors in Warwickshire. Her husband was Joseph Sollis from Salford
Prior who was 28 and a carter on a farm, while Emma Collett from Atch Lench
was 40 and a housekeeper. Their two
children were Jane Sollis who was six and Margaret Sollis who was four years
of age, both of whom had been born at Salford Priors. Living with the family was Emma’s widowed
father John Collett who was 67. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Ten
years later Emma and her family were still recorded as living in Salford
Priors with her husband and her two daughters. Joseph Sollis was 38, Emma was 50, Jane was
16 and Margaret was 14. Also living in
that same census registration district was Emma unmarried younger sister
Ellen Collett (below). |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14O5 |
Ellen Collett was born in 1867 at Atch Lench and was
three years old and 14 years of the age respectively in the two census
returns in 1871 and 1881 when she was living at Atch Lench with her family. In 1901 Ellen Collett from Church Lench was
33 when she was working as a domestic housemaid at Weston & Whixall under
Redcastle in Shropshire, while during the next few years she moved to Salford
Priors in Warwickshire to be near her older married sister Emma Sollis nee
Collett (above). In the census of 1911
Ellen Collett was 43. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14O6 |
John William Collett was born at Atch Lench in 1869, the
sixth child and only son of John and Hannah Collett. It was at Atch Lench that he lived most of
his early life, where he was one year old in 1871, and 10 years old in 1881,
although in the census that year his place of birth was given as Church
Lench. Also not long after the census
in 1871 his mother passed away, so he spent the next twenty years living with
his widowed father, both of them being agricultural labourers. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
John
was still living with his at the time of the Atch Lench census in 1891 when
he was 21, but during the following year he married Sarah from Arrow in
Alcester. It was also around that same
time that his father passed away. By
the time of the census in March 1901 Sarah had presented John with three
children. The Atch Lench census that
year listed the family as agricultural labourer John Collett, age 31, his
wife Sarah who was 33, their son John who was seven, and daughters Elsie and
Margaret who were six and three. All
of the occupants of the household, except Sarah, had been born at Atch Lench. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Sarah,
from Arrow in Warwickshire, may well have been expecting her fourth child on
the day of the census in 1901, since later that same year she gave birth to
another daughter. A further child
followed many years later, so by April 1911 the family still living at Atch
Lench was made up as follows. John was
41, Sarah was 42, their son John was 17, Margaret was 13, Bertha was nine
years old, and baby Ethel was only four months old. No record of daughter Elsie has been found,
and she would have been around sixteen years of age. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
14P1 |
John Collett |
Born in 1893
at Atch Lench |
|||||||
|
14P2 |
Elsie Collett |
Born in 1895
at Atch Lench |
|||||||
|
14P3 |
Margaret
Collett |
Born in 1897
at Atch Lench |
|||||||
|
14P4 |
Bertha
Collett |
Born in 1901
at Atch Lench |
|||||||
|
14P5 |
Ethel Collett |
Born in
December 1910 at Atch Lench |
|||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
14O8 |
Cecilia Olivia E Collett
was born at Upper
Slaughter in 1865, the eldest child of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. Around the time she was three or four years
old her parents left Upper Slaughter when they moved to Reading. And it was there in the St Mary district
that Cecilia A E Collett was five years old.
During the next decade the family moved again, on that occasion to Brixton
in London. From there, her parents
took the family to Peckham, and then to Camberwell, where the family was
living in 1881. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
By
the time of the census that year Cecilia A E Collett, age 15 and from Upper
Slaughter, was a paper gummer and envelope maker living with her parents at 7 Buckingham Villas in Camberwell,
Surrey. It was just over two years
later that Cecilia Olivia E Collett married Robert Hutcherson, their wedding
recorded at Edmonton in London (Ref. 3a 378) during the last three months of
1883. The witnesses at their wedding
were George Frederick Burton and Elizabeth Naomi Jenn. On the day the census was conducted in 1891
Cecilia Olivia Hutcherson from Upper Slaughter was 25 and a patient at St
Luke’s Chest Hospital in East Finsbury. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Tragically
it was less than one year later that the death of Cecilia Hutcherson was
recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 275) during the first three months of 1892 when
she was only 27. Prior to her passing
she had given birth to two children.
Robert William Hutcherson was born during 1884 and Kate Amelia
Hutcherson was born two years later in 1886. |
|||||||||
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14O9 |
Samuel Alfred H Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1866,
the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.
Just after he was born his father’s work took him to Reading, where
the family was recorded in the 1871 Census for the St Mary district of the
town. It was on that occasion that he
was recorded at Samuel A H Collett, aged years. Further moves took place during the
following decade, which took the family to Camberwell via Brixton and
Peckham. It was Samuel A Collett, age
14 and from Upper Slaughter, that he was farrier of 14 years living with his
parents at 7 Buckingham Villas in
Camberwell in 1881. |
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It
is possible that Samuel joined the army after that, since in the census of 1891,
as Samuel Collett, age 24, he was listed in the census that year at an
‘institution’ at Frimley within the Farnham registration district of Surrey. The only other Collett also living in that
same area, was Ann Collett who 59. |
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During
the last decade of the century Samuel married Alice from London, and in March
1901 the childless couple were living within the Kingston-on-Thames
registration district, when both of them were 34 and Samuel’s place of birth
was recorded simply as Gloucestershire, while Alice’s was just London. Samuel’s occupation on that occasion was
that of a carpenter. Ten years later
in April 1911, Samuel Alfred Collett from Gloucestershire was 45 and was living
within the Croydon area with his wife Alice Collett who was also 45. |
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It
was under the name of Samuel A Collett that his death was recorded at the
North-Eastern register office in Surrey (Ref. 2a 51) during the last month of
1943 when he was 77, following which he was buried in the grounds of the
Church of St Nicholas at Thames Ditton on 29th December 1943. |
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14O11
|
Otto Francis Keil
Collett was born at
Brixton in 1876 but by 1881 he was living at 7 Buckingham Villas in
Camberwell with his parents Thomas and Elizabeth Collett, when he was
recorded as Otto F Collett aged four years.
After a further ten years he and his family were living in the
Wandsworth & Clapham area of London, although Otto Francis Collett, age
14, was not living at the family’s home, but was living and working nearby. |
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It
is not clear what happened to his family after 1891, except that Otto joined
the Royal Navy and in March 1901 he was enjoying a period of leave from his
base in Chatham. Curiously the census
that year recorded him in two places at the same time. The first was at his base at Chatham, where
he was simply Otto Collett, age 24 from London, Kent, where he was described
as a navy seaman. In the second, he
was listed with his mother Elizabeth Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold at her
home in Shoreham Street in Shoreham, Kent, just north of Sevenoaks. He was named as Otto Francis Keil Collett,
age 24 from London, who was a naval seaman, while also living at the same
address was his brother Amos (below). It
was only two years after that when the death of Otto Francis Collett, at the
age of 26, was recorded at Seven Oaks in Kent (Ref. 2a 453) during the first
quarter of 1903. |
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14O12
|
Amos Thomas Collett was born at Brixton in London during
1877, the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Elizabeth, who had moved to
Brixton from Reading just a few years earlier. Further family moves took place while he
was still very young, the first to Peckham, followed by a move to Camberwell,
where he and his family were living at 7 Buckingham Villas by the time of the
census in 1881 when as Amos T Collett he was three years old. |
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In
1891 the family was living in the Wandsworth & Clapham registration
district, when Amos Collette (sic) was 13.
On leaving school Amos became a carpenter and a joiner like others in
his family, and in 1901 he was living at Shoreham Street in Shoreham, north
of Sevenoaks, with his mother and his brother Otto (above). The census listed his as Amos Thomas
Collett, age 22 and from London, whose occupation was that of a joiner. |
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It
was during the first ten years of the new century that Amos married Alice,
and in April 1911 the couple were living in Kingston-on-Thames with their
first child. Amos Thomas Collett from
Brixton was 32 and a joiner, his wife Alice Collett was 28, and their daughter
Hilda Alice Elizabeth was thirteen months old. Amos T Collett was 55 when he died during
the second quarter of 1933, his death being recorded at Kingston-on-Thames
register office (Ref. 2a 560). |
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14P6 |
Hilda Alice
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in March
1910 |
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14O14
|
Victor Collett was very likely born at 7 Buckingham
Villas in Camberwell during the months following the census day in 1881. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth
Collett, and by the time he was nine years old he and his family were living
in the Wandsworth & Clapham district of London. With an older brother serving with the navy
at the turn of the century, it is possible that Victor had also enlisted with
one of the armed forces, since he has not been located anywhere in Great Britain
at the time of the March census in 1901.
However, ten years later, in April 1911, Victor Collett age 28 was
unmarried when he was living alone and working in the Kingston-upon-Thames
area of London. It is possible that
during the following years he became a married man. |
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14O16 |
EDITH COLLETT was born at Penarth in Glamorganshire
in 1876, the only children of John Kyte Collett. At the time of the 1881 Census she was aged
five years and was living at 20 Romilly Crescent at Llandaff, the home of her
parents. However, on the actual day of
the census her parents were away visiting her grandfather Thomas White Reeves
at Pilton in |
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14O17 |
Gertrude Collett was born at Liverpool during 1879, the
eldest of the four daughters of Oliver Emms Collett and his wife Martha
Finney. In 1881 she was one year old
and was living at 5 William Street in Widnes, was 11 years old in 1891 when
the family was living in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, and was 21 and a
dressmaker still living with her parents in 1901, but which time they were
residing at Cheadle. Gertrude was
still a spinster in 1911 and was still living with her parents at the age of
31. Not long after she married George
Adams, and it was as Gertrude Adams the wife of George that she was recorded
at Chester for the probate of her father’s personal estate of Ł208 13
Shillings 8d on 13th December 1917, following his death on 18th
October that year. Also named was her
married sister Martha (below). |
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14O19 |
Martha Collett was born at Garston on Merseyside in
1884, the third daughter of Oliver and Martha Collett. By 1891, and at the age of six years, she
and her family were living at Toxteth, while ten years later her parents had
moved to Cheadle in Cheshire. At that
time in her life she had left school and was an apprenticed to a milliner at
the age of 16. She was still living
with her parents in 1911, but in Stockport, when she was unmarried at
26. Prior to the First World War it
would appear that Martha married to become Martha Coombes. Sadly by the time of the death of her
father in October 1917 Martha’s husband had died or been killed in action,
because she was referred to as the widow Martha Coombes during the probate
process of her father’s estate. |
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14O21
|
Arthur Collett was born at Stratton St Margaret near
Swindon during the first six months of 1874 and the birth was registered at
nearby Highworth. It is possible that
he was born while his parents were living in the High Street, where the
family was recorded as living in the census of 1881 when Arthur was 6 and
confirmed as having been born at Stratton.
Sometime after the census day in 1881 Arthur’s family moved from
Stratton to the Gorse Hill area of Swindon where Arthur’s four youngest
siblings were born. And it there that
he was living with his family ten years later in 1891 at the age of 17. No record of Arthur has been found in the
census returns for either 1901 or 1911.
However, it is known that in his later life George was employed as a
groom. |
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14O22 |
Lilley Amelia Collett was born at Stratton St Margaret near
Swindon during the period April to June in 1876, and was registered at
Highworth. The entry in the Highworth
register of births used the name Lilley, and her name was also spelt that way
by her parents when informing the enumerator during the census of 1881. However, once she had left home she used
the more conventional spelling of Lily. In the early part of 1881, when she was five
years old, Lilley was living with her parents at the High Street in Stratton,
although shortly after the census day that year the family left Stratton,
when they moved to Gorse Hill in Swindon.
On leaving school she entered domestic service and by the time of the
census in 1891, when she was listed as Lily Collett, age 15 and from Swindon,
she was living and working in the Hungerford & Lambourne registration
district of Berkshire. |
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Eight
years later in 1899 Lily Amelia Collett married John Selwood of Thrupp near
Stroud, and by the time of the census of 1901 she had presented her husband
with their first child William Selwood.
By the time of the census in 1911 the family was living in Swindon,
where Lily Amelia Selwood was 35, her husband John Selwood from Thrupp was
41, and their son William John Selwood was 11. |
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14O23
|
Edith Emily Collett was born at Stratton St Margaret
during the first quarter of 1879, in January, February, or March, when her
family was living in the High Street there.
And it was there also that Edith Collett was two years old at the time
of the census in 1881 when she was living there with her parents George and
Kezia Collett. Within a few months
Edith’s family moved to Gorse Hill in Swindon where they were living in 1891
when Edith was twelve. It seems very
likely that she was married by March 1901 since no record of her as Edith
Collett has been found in that year’s census. |
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14O24 |
George Henry Collett was born at Gorse Hill in Swindon on
20th September 1881, the birth being registered at Highworth. He was the son of George and Kezia Collett
who had been living in the High Street in Stratton St Margaret just six
months before he was born. It was at
Gorse Hill that he and his family were living in 1891, when he was nine years
old. Upon leaving school George
secured work with the Great Western Railway, like his father before him. The GWR Staff Records confirmed that his
employment with the company commenced on 6th February 1899 and he
initially learned the trade of a coach builder at the Swindon Works. Just
over one year later, when he was 19, the 1901 Census recorded that he was
employed as a locomotive engine stoker, while he was in lodgings in the St
Mary’s district of Reading, midway between Swindon and London on the GWR main
line. For whatever reason his
employment with the GWR was later terminated. |
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By
the time of the next census in April 1911, George Henry Collett, age 29, had
returned to Swindon, where he was living with his parents George and Kezia
Collett. It was around that time in
his life that he had met Kate Simpkins who was born at Haydon-Wick in Swindon
on 26th June 1883. Two
months after the census day the couple were married at St Mary’s Church in
Rodbourne Cheney in Swindon on 03.06.1911.
At that time George’s age was recorded as being 29 years, 8 months and
13 days, while Kate was 27 years, 11 months and 7 days. Ten years prior to marrying George, Kate
had been working as a general domestic servant at a house in the village of
Christian Malford, near Chippenham, when she was recorded in the 1901 Census
as Kathleen Simpkins age 17 and from Highworth. |
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Over
the next decade she moved to London where, in 1911, as Kate Simpkins she was
working in the domestic service of a titled lady in the Lambeth district of
the city. During that time in her
life, and following an operation on an ear, she became partially deaf and
therefore could not remain in service receiving callers for the lady of the
house. However, she did not lose her
job because of that, but was given other duties instead, that did not rely on
the ability to hear everything that was going on. Later in the same year that they were
married, Kate was with pregnant with the couple’s first child. Tragically though, George’s and Kate’s
first child was born and died during February 1912, and the fact that he was
not named might indicate that the child was stillborn. |
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That was a very sad time for the newly
married couple, just setting out on their life together. In an attempt to ease their grief, Kate’s
sister Ada contacted the couple and suggested that they might like to make a
new start in Australia, to where Ada had emigrated just a few years earlier
to be married to Percy Gilbert Matthews.
However, their move to Australia had not been as straightforward as it
might have been, since their first application to Australia House was
rejected. The application had been
sponsored by Kate’s sister Ada who was listed as not having an occupation,
and that may have been the reason for the rejection. It was only when a second application was
made listing their brother-in-law and butcher Percy Matthews as the sponsor,
that the couple were finally granted approval to settle in Australia. |
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At
that time George and Kate were living at 12 Beatrice Street in the Gorse Hill
district of Swindon and close to the railway works where George was employed. 12
Beatrice Street is still there today. So
it was from there that they left England and sailed on the RMS Roscommon to
Cairns in Queensland, where they arrived on 3rd September 1913. The story told within the family is, that
upon disembarking and seeing the aboriginal workers on the quayside at
Cairns, Kate was so afraid that she wanted to re-board the ship and return to
England. In the end she was persuaded
to stay, and she and George lived at Cairns and very likely in a house on the
corner of Grove Street and McLeod Street in Cairns, where the last of their
four children were born. |
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Around 1923 George and Kate and their
children left Cairns and sailed the one thousand miles south on the ship
Canberra to Brisbane. The Canberra was
later renamed ‘Centaur’ and was called into service as a hospital ship during
the Second World War. It was however
sunk by the Japanese just off Cape Moreton, with a great loss of life. Upon arrival at Brisbane, the family
initially lodged with George’s sister-in-law Ada Matthews and her family at
Paddington. That was to allow George
sufficient time to find a place for him and his family to live, which he did,
and they then moved into the house at 18 Shaw Street in the Auchenflower
district of Brisbane. |
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And
it was at Brisbane where Kate Collett nee Simpkins died on 30th
January 1966 and was buried there at the Mount Thompson Crematorium. George survived for a further eleven years
and when he died on 13th May 1977.
Due to his failing health he was staying at St Luke’s Nursing Home in
Brisbane, from where his body was taken to be buried with his wife, four days
later. The cause of death was recorded
as being bronchopneumonia and cerebral atherosclerosis. During his life in Australia, both at
Cairns and at Brisbane, George continued the career that he had started in
Swindon by working for the Queensland Railways. There was another time in his life when he
worked as a butcher, probably thanks to his brother-in-law Percy
Matthews. It was also around that time
when George and Kate were still living at Auchenflower where they received
the sad news that their son Cyril had been killed in action in Papua New
Guinea in 1942. |
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14P7
|
unnamed Collett son |
Born in 1912
at Swindon |
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14P8
|
Harold Fleming Collett |
Born on
26.09.1914 at Cairns, Australia |
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14P9 |
Cyril Horace Collett |
Born on
17.03.1916 at Cairns, Australia |
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14P10 |
Vera Maud Collett |
Born on
10.03.1917 at Cairns, Australia |
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14P11
|
Arthur James Collett |
Born on
04.04.1918 at Cairns, Australia |
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14O25 |
Ernest Albert Collett was born at Gorse Hill in Swindon on
12th January 1886, the birth being registered at Highworth, when
his parents were named as George and Kezia Collett. By the time of the 1891 Census for Swindon
he was five years old and listed with his family at Gorse Hill, and ten years
later in 1901 when he was 15, he was still living with his parents in
Swindon. The census that took place on
31st March 1901 recorded Ernest Collett of Gorse Hill as working
as a ‘coll boy’ with the Great Western Railway, where his older brother
George (above) and their father were already working. |
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What
is known from the GWR Staff Records is that eleven months earlier on 30th
April 1900 Ernest Albert Collett entered service with the company and that
his period of employment with them continued until 5th September
1905. The record shows that it was at
Marlow in Buckinghamshire that he ended his time with the GWR. By April 1911 it is believed that Ernest
was living in London and that he was simply referred to as Ernest Collett,
age 25, who was living in the Greenwich area of the city. It is possible that he became a married man
some time later. |
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14O26
|
Beatrice Frances Collett
was born at Gorse
Hill in Swindon during the first quarter of 1887, the daughter of George and
Kezia Collett. In the census of 1891
she was listed with her family at Gorse Hill at the age of four years. Ten years later she was still living at the
family home in Swindon when she was 13 and was still attending the local
school, when her place of birth was confirmed as Gorse Hill. No trace of Beatrice has been found in the
census of 1911, so it may be safe to assume that she was married by then. |
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14O27 |
Elsie Frances Collett was born at Gorse Hill in Swindon
during the fourth quarter of 1890, the youngest child of George Collett and
his wife Kezia Duck. Like all of her
siblings before her, the birth was registered at nearby Highworth. She was just a few months old at the time
of the 1891 Census for Swindon, but ten years later in 1901 she was eleven
and her place of birth confirmed as Gorse Hill. Like her sister Beatrice (above), no trace
of Elsie has been found in the census of 1911, so it may be safe to assume
that she too was married by then. |
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14O29 |
Frederick George Collett
was born at Ampney
Crucis in December 1900 and was listed as being just four months old in the
March census of 1901 when he was living there with his parents Frederick and
Minnie Collett and older sister Mabel.
Sometime over the following years Frederick’s family left Ampney
Crucis and moved nearer to Cheltenham.
By April 1911 the family was living within the Winchcomb registration
district, where Frederick George Collett, age 10, was living there with his
parents, although his old sister Mabel, who would have been 12, was missing
and is therefore assumed to have died during the intervening years. He is known to have died in late 1918 at
the age of 18 and, although not verified as being this particular Collett,
there was a Frederick Collett with no reported next-of-kin, who was Gunner
Collett 86413 of the Royal Garrison Artillery who was killed in France on 10th
October 1918. The body of Frederick
Collett was buried at Sains-on-Gohelle twenty kilometres north of Arras in
France. |
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14O33 |
Thomas Collett was born at Dudley in 1865 and was 15
years old in the census of 1881 when he was living with his family at St
James Road in Dudley in 1881. Thirty
years later the only Thomas Collett born in Dudley was married to Mary Sophie
and the couple was living in Stourbridge in Worcestershire in 1911 when they
were both recorded as being 49. Whilst
that does not correspond with Thomas’ year of birth, it may simply be that he
did not wish to admit he was younger than his wife. |
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14O34 |
Harriet Rose Collett was born at Dudley in 1867 and was four
years old and 14 years of age in 1871 and 1881 respectively, while living
with her family at St James Road in Dudley.
By 1891 and following the death of her family she and her mother had
moved to Hastings with three of her younger sisters (below) where Harriet was
24 in 1891. Sometime during the 1890s
Harriet made a return to the Midlands and was recorded as living in Edgbaston
in Birmingham in 1901. By then she was
listed as 34, born at Dudley, and working as a domestic housekeeper. Just after that Harriet married Mister H
Herbert in 1902 although no record of the couple has been found so far in the
census of 1911. |
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14O35 |
Amelia Frances Collett was born at |
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14O36 |
Howson Collett was born at |
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14O37 |
Mary Augusta Collett was born at Dudley in 1872, the twin
sister of Lillian (below) and the daughter of Thomas Collett and Ann E Walker. In the census of 1881 Mary was eight years
of age when she and her family were residing at St James Road in Dudley. Her father died when she was sixteen and
shortly thereafter her mother and four of her sisters travelled south to
Hasting where they were living in 1891.
At that same time Mary A Collett from Dudley was working as a
telegraph learner at the Post Office in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire,
when she was staying at the home of the Randall family. |
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14O38 |
Lillian Louise Collett was born at Dudley in 1872 and was one
half of a set of twins. She was eight
years old in the census of 1881 when she was living at the family home in St
James Road in Dudley. Following the
death of her father, her mother and some of her sisters left Dudley and moved
to Hastings. And it was there in the
St Mary in the Castle district that she was living in 1891 aged 18 with her
widowed mother Ann and sister Harriet (above), Eleanor and Annie (below). She later became a hospital nurse and moved
north to Yorkshire where she was living in 1901. She was recorded in the census in March
that year as living at Cawthorne to the west of Barnsley. She was 28 and from Dudley and her
occupation was that of a domestic hospital nurse. Lillian Louise Collett was still a spinster
in 1911 when she was thirty-eight. By
then she had left Yorkshire and had returned to the south coast and was
living at East Preston near Little Hampton in Sussex. |
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14O39 |
Eleanor Frances Collett was born at Dudley in 1874 and was seven
years old in April 1881 when she was living at St James Road in Dudley with
her family. Sometime during the 1880s
her father died and her mother then took the family to live in Hastings. The 1891 Census listed Eleanor aged 17 as
living within the St Mary in the Castle area of the town with her mother and
three sisters. Ten years later at the
age of 27, and still unmarried, Eleanor was living at Wolverton in
Southampton where she was employed as a lady’s help and domestic. During the next decade Eleanor returned to
the Warwickshire, and in April 1911 she was recorded as Eleanor Frances
Collett from Dudley who was thirty-seven and living in Warwick. It seems likely from this that she never
married. |
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14O40 |
Edgar Howson Collett was born at Dudley in 1875 and was
living at James Road in Dudley on the day of the census in 1881 when he was
five years old. Following the death of
his father in the 1880s, Edgar H Collett was still living in Dudley in 1891
at the age of fifteen even though his mother had moved to Hastings. Two years after the census day he emigrated
to Victoria in Australia, sailing from the Port of London on 24th
March 1893 on board the ship Oruba bound for Melbourne. On the passenger list he was recorded in
error as being 24, when in fact he was only eighteen years old. Six years after arriving in Australia
Edgar married (1) Helen Louisa Brown in 1899 who was born in 1874 but who
died at the age of 42 during 1917.
That union produced two children for Edgar, who later married his
sister-in-law following the premature death of his wife. It was in 1919 that Edgar married (2) L D
Brown who was born in 1880 and with whom he had a further child. |
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|
The
following is the earlier 1917 newspaper report on the passing of Edgar’s
first wife. “The death occurred at Sorrento early on Saturday morning of Mrs
Helen Louisa Collett, aged 42 years, wife of Mr E H Collett, of Myer's
establishment from complications supervening on an apoplectic seizure. Mrs Collett and her two daughters left
Bendigo by the A N A excursion and were joined at Sorrento a few days later
by Mr. Collett. The deceased lady,
though not possessing a very robust constitution, enjoyed fairly good health,
and the news of her sudden demise will cause shock and sorrow among a wide
circle of friends. She was an
enthusiastic worker in many of the activities connected with the Forest
Street Methodist Church, having been a teacher in the Sunday School, a
vice-president of the Girls' Guild and a member of the Women's
Auxiliary. She was also a valuable
helpmate to her husband in his work as circuit steward, and was for many
years a leading soloist in the choir.
Mrs Collett was sister to Mr Walter Brown, house and land agent of
Bendigo; Mr Ernest Brown of Murrumbeena; Private Hugh Brown of the A M C; Mr
Roy Brown and Misses Ethel and Lottie Brown of Melbourne. Helen’s younger daughter Lorna, who was six
years old when her mother died, placed on her coffin a bunch of flowers she
had gathered from the garden with the label "For Mamma." |
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|
It
was in 1943 at the age of 68 that Edgar Howson Collett died at his home at
Barkly place in Bendigo, Victoria and, at the time of his death, it was
written that he had been residing there for almost fifty years. That means he was married after arriving in
Australia, and where also his three children were born. The following is the newspaper report printed
on the day of his burial. |
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|
“English by birth, Mr
Collett became associated with the late Mr Sidney Myer nearly 45 years ago,
at the commencement of a connection with the drapery firm of Myer's at
Bendigo, which continued right to the time of his death. For 40 of those 45 years Mr Collett was
secretary of the company. Possessed of
an exceptionally fine tenor voice, which had attracted notice even before he
came to Australia, Mr Collett quickly found a place in Bendigo's musical
circles. He became associated with
Forest Street Methodist Church Choir, and that association was to continue
for 44 years. For 22 years he was
choirmaster, and relinquished the position about 18 months ago through
illness. He took a great interest in
the old Bendigo Choral Society, in which he acted as sub-conductor to Mr W C
Frazier. Mr Collett was always in
great demand as a vocalist, and he assisted and encouraged many young
singers. He filled many offices during
his connection with the Forest Street Church, among them being church
steward, circuit steward, circuit treasurer, church trustee, and secretary of
the trust. |
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Mr Collett was prominent in the Masonic
craft. One of the first members of the
Corona Lodge, and master of the lodge in 1917. He was also conductor of the lodge choir. He was afterwards deputy-grand director of
ceremonies of the Grand Lodge of Victoria. He occupied the chair in the Bendigo
Sovereign Chapter and was sovereign of the Knights of Constantine and Prince
Rose Croix. He was a commander of the
Bendigo Consistory, 30th Degree, and latterly was promoted to the
31st Degree. He was also
interested in the Oddfellow's Order. His
sporting activities were confined to bowls. He was at one time a member of the
committee, and auditor of Bendigo Bowling Club, in addition to being one of
its most prominent players. Mr
Collett leaves a widow, two daughters (Maisie and Lorna) and one son (Flying
Officer Raymond Collett) who is at present serving with a Sunderland Squadron
in Great Britain. The funeral will
take place today to Bendigo cemetery.” |
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14P12 |
Lillian May (Maisie)
Collett |
Born in 1900
at Bendigo, Australia |
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14P13 |
Lorna Eleanor
Collett |
Born in 1908
at Bendigo, Australia |
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14P14 |
Raymond
Howson Collett |
Born in 1920
at Bendigo, Australia |
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14O41 |
Raymond Collett was born at Dudley in 1877 and he
married Margaret Faith sometime before 1911 and, in the census that year, the
couple were both aged thirty-three and were living in the Lambeth area of
London. Raymond’s place of birth was
confirmed as Dudley. It was nine years
later that the marriage produced the only child for the couple, when their
daughter was born in 1920. Thirty
years later Raymond and Margaret were living at 7 Sparkbridge Road in Harrow,
North London, where he died on 25th April 1950, following which
administration of his personal estate of Ł3,767 13 Shillings 9d was granted
jointly to his widow Margaret Collett and his unmarried daughter Lilian Joan
Collett. |
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14P15 |
Lillian Joan
Collett |
Born in 1920 |
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14O42 |
Harold Collett was born at Dudley in 1879 and was
two years old in April 1881 when living at James Road in Dudley with his
family. Although no trace of him has
been found ten years later, it is established that his father had died when
he was around ten years of age, following which his mother took his sisters
to Hastings to live with her there. However,
by 1901 Harold was 22 and was living at Eccleshall in Staffordshire where he
was working as a clerk. At that same
time there was another Collett family living at Eccleshall and that was the
family of Mark Collett (Ref. 11O27) whose family are featured in Part 11 –
The Welford-on-Avon Line. It is not
known whether or not Harold was ever married, but it is confirmed that he
died during the Great War while serving as Private 6849 with the Royal
Fusiliers. Tragically he died in
action on 29th April 1917 and his name appears on Bay 3 of the
Arras Memorial. |
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On
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14O43 |
Annie Adelaide Collett was born at |
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14O44 |
Annie Kathleen Collett was born at St James Road in Dudley in
1882. She was still very young when
her father died in 1888 and when her mother took her and her sisters to
Hastings to live. And it was at St
Mary in the Castle at Hasting that the family was listed in 1891 when Annie
was aged eight years. Over the
following years her older sisters left the family home at which point in her
life her mother took her to live at Worthing.
So by the time of the census of 1901 Annie K Collett was aged 18 and
was holding the position of domestic governess, while living and working with
her mother who was a domestic housekeeper. |
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14O45 |
Emily Ann Collett was born in 1866 and possibly at
Stratford-on-Avon like her brother Oliver (below). In 1881 she was a boarder at The Ferns
School for Girls in Islington which was run by school mistress Miss C
Birchall aged 53. In 1894 she married
Harry Whale Buckland with whom she is known to have had two children. The following year her brother William
Henry Collett married Annie Bagg Buckland who it must be assumed was the
sister of Harry Buckland. In April
1911 Emily and Harry were living in Worcester with the first of their two
known children. Emily Ann Buckland was
45, Harry Whale Buckland was 38, and their daughter was Beryl Faith Buckland
who was five years old. Beryl later
married to become Beryl Faith Eames, and she was the grandmother of Cathy
Eames who was researching her family in 2012. |
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14O46 |
Oliver Charles Collett was born at Stratford-on-Avon in
1867. In 1881 he was aged 13 and was
living away from home being privately educated by Assistant Grammar School
Master Johann H Klinke from Germany in his home at 2 Church House, Dedham in
Essex. Oliver was 27 when he married
Jessie Northway in 1894. Two years
later in 1896 Jessie presented her husband with a daughter, but sadly she
died during that same year. Oliver was a Justice of the Peace and spent
time in Ceylon, where he died at the relatively young age of 35 on 13th
June 1902. A commemorative
brass plaque in St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Water marks the event
as follows: “Sacred to the Memory of Oliver Collett JP FRMS son of |
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14P16 |
Maud Margorie
Collett |
Born in 1896;
infant death |
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14O47 |
William Henry Collett was born at Aston in Birmingham in
1869, the son of John Collett and his first wife Sarah Ann Charles. Around the mid 1870s William’s family moved
to London, and in 1881 they were living at Alleyn Park in the Kingwood Lawn
area of Camberwell where William Henry was eleven years old. In 1895 he married Annie B (Bagg) Buckland with whom he had three
children over the following ten years, but sadly only two of them
survived. Just after the turn of the
century William and his wife were living in Sheffield. William H Collett was 32, while Annie B
Collett was 31, and by that time their first child had already died. According to the census in 1911, William
and his family were living in the Chapel en le Frith area of Derbyshire. William Henry Collett was forty-one, Annie
Bagg Collett was the same age, and their two children were Oliver who was
seven, and Naomi Rhonwyn who was five years old. William Henry Collett was a widower when he
died in 1927, following the earlier death of his wife Annie during 1925. |
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14P17 |
Violet Rachael Collett |
Born in 1896 |
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14P18 |
Oliver Collett |
Born in 1903 |
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14P19 |
Naomi Rhonwyn
Collett |
Born in 1905 |
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14O48 |
John Sydney Collett was born at Aston in Birmingham in
1870. When he was around five years
old his family left Birmingham and moved to London where, in 1881, they were
living at Alleyn Park in the Kingwood Lawn district of Camberwell. John Sydney married Ethel Gully in 1903 and
the married produced two children. By
the time of the census in 1911, John was not listed with his wife and two
children. Instead Ethel Mary Collett,
age 32, was living in the Wandsworth area of London with her son John Anthony
who was seven, and her daughter Marguerite Augusta who was just three months
old. |
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Where
John was on that occasion has not been determined, nor are there are details
available regarding his later life, whether with or without his family. There is however recorded in London on 4th
December 1948 the proving of the Will of John Sydney Collett of 1 Elmbridge
Avenue in Surbiton, Surrey, who died on 30th September 1948 at
Woodlands Cottage in Bradford-on-Avon, which may have been a nursing home or
Woodlands Cottage Hospital. His
considerable personal estate of Ł21,833 8 Shillings 11d was handled by The
National Bank of India Limited, so he may have been working in India in
1911. Further work must be carried out
to prove or disprove that he was the same John Charles Collett who was born
at Aston in 1870. |
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14P20 |
John Anthony
Collett |
Born in 1904 |
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14P21 |
Marguerite
Augusta Collett |
Born in January
1911 |
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14O49 |
Cecilia Dora Ransford
Collett was born at
Camberwell on 27th November 1876.
At the time of the census in 1901 Cecilia was 24 and was living at Lambeth
with her family. Ten years later in
April 1911, she was living in the Wandsworth area of London, where she was
recorded as Cecilia Doris Collett aged 34.
She never married and lived a full and long life. Upon her death in 1964 she was buried at St
Lawrence’s Church in Bourton with her parents, where a single tombstone marks
the grave. For Cecilia, the headstone
records that she was the daughter of |
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Footnote: Within the history of Stow-on-the-Wold
there is a reference to Maugersbury Manor, which was the home of the lords of
the manor for three hundred years.
During the 1930s the whole estate was split up, at which time the
manorial rights were purchased by Mr. Kenneth de Courcy of North Cerney. He was still the ‘lord of the manor’ in
1961, although at that time he owned no land within the parish. A further, more interesting note, states
that Mr de Courcy and Miss Ransford Collett were the former tenants of the
manor house. Could she possibly have
been Cecilia Dora Ransford Collett? |
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14O50 |
Bernard Collett was born at Camberwell in 1878. By the end of March 1901 he was aged 22 and
was living at Lambeth. Rather
strangely the census record described his occupation at that time as being
‘retired to accountant’. It is
established that Bernard later became an accountant in London and that in the
census of 1911 he was thirty-two and living with his brother Aubrey Ransford
Collett (below) in the Wandsworth area of London. It was sometime after that when he married
Irene Colman Smith. |
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In
1921 Bernard Collett published the Family Tree for the Colletts of Upper
Slaughter which was lodged with the British Library and which in 1935 was
used by writer Clara Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 17O4) and Henry Haines Collett
(Ref. 4N8) to produce ‘The History of the Collett Family’. Bernard was described as being a chartered
accountant at the time of the death of his father John Collett in 1919 and
four years later at the death of his mother Cecilia Helen Collett when, on
both occasions he and his brother Aubrey (below), were named as executors of
the two Wills. At the time of the
death of his younger brother Aubrey in 1936, Bernard, a chartered accountant,
was named as an executive of his estate. Bernard Collett was living at 42 Whitmore
Road in Harrow when he died on 5th January 1951, with probate for
his personal estate of Ł12,717 4 Shillings 1d granted jointly to George
Herbert Cann and Irene Collett, a widow. |
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14O51 |
Aubrey Ransford Collett was born at Alleyn Park at Kingwood
Lawn in Camberwell on 21st May 1880 and was recorded as being ten
months old on 3rd April the following year for the 1881
Census. At the age of 20 he was still living
in London at Lambeth, from where he was employed as an insurance clerk. Ten years later in April 1911, Aubrey
Ransford Collett, age 30, was living in the Wandsworth district of London
with his brother Bernard (above). On
the occasion of the death of his father John Collett in 1919 Aubrey was a
broker and in 1923 at the time of the death of his mother he was referred to
as an insurance broker when, for both events, he was named as an executor of
his parents’ personal estate, jointly with his brother Bernard (above). |
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On
15th April 1934 Aubrey sailed into Southampton on board the ship
Camito, a vessel of the Elders and Fyffes Shipping Line, having sailed there
from Bristol. He was listed on the
passenger list as being 53 and an insurance broker. |
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Very
little else is known about him apart from the fact that he shares a grave in
the churchyard at Bourton-on-the-Water, the inscription on which simply reads
“Aubrey Ransford Collett 21st May 1880 – 8th February
1936”. On the same tombstone is an older
inscription “Susan Beale Collett 4th December 1842 |
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Just over one year after the death of
Aubrey Ransford Collett, an auction sale of some of his personal effects was
held at Christies in London on 1st March 1937. The auction catalogue included the words “The following are Sold by Order of the
Executors of A Ransford Collett Esq, deceased and have been removed from
Maugersbury Manor, Stow-on-the-Wold, Glos”. Written on the same page by hand, were the
words “Bernard Collett, 4 Bristol House,
Southampton Row, WC1”. |
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14O52 |
Arthur Stanley Collett was born at Alleyn Park at Kingwood
Lawn in Camberwell during 1881 but in the latter part of that year since he
was not listed in the census on 3rd April.
Arthur was 19 at the time of the 1901 Census and was living at Lambeth
where he was working as a stockbroker’s clerk. He later married Rita |
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14P22 |
Diana Collett |
Born in 1925 |
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14P23 |
Joan Collett |
Born in 1927 |
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14P24 |
Henry Stanley |
Born in 1930 |
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14P7
|
The unnamed Collett son and the first child of George
Collett and Kate Simpkins was born at 12 Beatrice Street in Swindon in
February 1912 Feb and died at that same time.
The fact that he was not named might be an indication that the child
was stillborn. |
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14P8
|
Harold Fleming Collett was the first of four children born to
George Collett and Kate Simpkins after they had emigrated to Australia. Harold was born at Cairns in Queensland on
26th September 1914 and in 1923 his parents and the family left
Cairns, to move the one thousand miles south to Brisbane. He later married Merle Hallas Thompson on
24th July 1943 at Gatton in Queensland, to the west of
Brisbane. The details recorded at the
time of the wedding were that Harold was aged 28 years 3 months and 28 days,
while his bride was ten years younger at 18 years 4 months and 11 days. Merle had been born at Brisbane on 13th
March 1925. During the first fourteen
years of their marriage Harold and Merle had five children while they were
living at Brisbane. |
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Harold
Fleming Collett died from a blood clot on 17th May 1977 at the
Royal Brisbane Hospital where he was being treated for a leg injury. He was buried two days later at the Mount
Thompson Crematorium in Brisbane.
Tragically, Harold’s unexpected death came just four days after the
death of his father George Henry Collett and actually happened on the morning
of his father’s funeral. Merle
survived her husband by twenty-six years and was still living in Brisbane
when she died in 2003. |
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14Q1
|
Victor George Collett |
Born on
19.09.1944 at Brisbane |
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14Q2
|
Estelle Merle Collett |
Born on
21.03.1947 at Brisbane |
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14Q3
|
Maude Evelyn Collett |
Born on
24.05.1952 at Brisbane |
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14Q4
|
Cathryne Dawn Collett |
Born on
15.11.1954 at Brisbane |
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14Q5
|
Harold Cyril Collett |
Born on
01.12.1957 at Brisbane |
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14P9 |
Cyril Horace Collett was born at Cairns on 17th
March 1916 and was baptised at St John’s Church in Cairns, the son of George
and Kate Collett. When he was seven
years old his family moved from Cairns and settled in Auchenflower in
Brisbane. On leaving school he worked
as a labourer and at the age of twenty-four he enlisted for war service and
signed on at Kelvin Grove in Brisbane on 26th August 1940. His service number was Q28056 and in just
over a year he was promoted to corporal on 20th November 1941. |
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Just
over three weeks later on 13th December 1941 he was one of the
witnesses at the wedding of his younger brother Arthur James Collett (below)
at Christ Church St Lucia in Brisbane.
The other witness was Ina Kirkland who was a friend of the bride. Cyril was still at Brisbane on 27th
April 1942 when he was posted to 7th Field Ambulance Division of
61st Battalion. Three
months later he was with the 61st Battalion where they embarked
for New Guinea on board the ship the MV Swartenhordt which sailed out of
Townsville on 30th July 1942. |
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Tragically
one month later he was killed in action and died at Milne Bay in Papua New
Guinea on 29th August 1942.
He was originally buried at Milne Cemetery (Plot A Row B Grave 3) on 3rd
December 1942, but was later moved to the Bomana War Cemetery at Port Moresby
in Papua New Guinea where he was finally laid to rest on 29th
March 1946 (Plot A2 Row A Grave 19). |
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Historical
Note:
After the Japanese landed at Lae and Salamaua in March 1942, Port
Moresby became their chief objective. They decided to attack by sea, and
assembled an amphibious expedition for the purpose, which set out early in May,
but they were intercepted and heavily defeated by American air and naval
forces in the Coral Sea, and what remained of the Japanese expedition
returned to Rabaul. |
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The Japanese then made an amphibious landing at Milne Bay on 27th
August 1942. The 61st
Battalion was first into action but was unable to hold back the Japanese. The
Japanese reached the edge of the airstrip the next day, where they waited to
be reinforced. In the early morning of
31st August the Japanese charged the defences manned by the
remaining men of the 61st Battalion, who had been strengthened by
the 25th Battalion who were now fighting alongside them. The
Japanese suffered heavy losses and had withdrawn by dawn. Those gallant men who
died during the fighting, like Cyril, are buried in Port Moresby’s Bomana War
Cemetery, their graves having been brought in by the Australian Army Graves
Service from burial grounds in the areas where the fighting had taken place
and where they had originally been buried. |
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For
his service to his King and Country, Cyril Horace Collett of the 61st
Battalion Queensland Cameron Highlanders was posthumously awarded the
following medals; 1939-1945 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal, and Australian
Service Medal. |
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14P10 |
Vera Maud Collett was born at Cairns on 10th
March 1917, but moved to Brisbane with her family in 1923. She later became Vera Maud Johnston when
she married James William Johnston on 12th September 1942 at St
Alban’s Church in Auchenflower in Brisbane.
James was recorded as being aged 27 years 5 months and 11 days, while Vera
was 25 years 6 months and 2 days old. James
was born on 1st April 1915 at 136 Riding Road in Hawthorne
district of Brisbane and Vera presented him with two children, both of them
born while the couple were living at Brisbane. They were George William Johnston who was
born on 20th September 1944 and Joyce Helen Johnston who was born
on 30th June 1948. Their
daughter Joyce died in the Royal Brisbane Hospital on 1st January 1983
aged 38 and her ashes were placed in a communal grave at Mount Thompson Crematorium
in Brisbane. James William Johnston died
at Greensloped Repatriation Hospital in Brisbane on 5th September 1994
and was buried at Mount Thompson Crematorium two days later. Vera died at Ipswich in Queensland during
February 2002. |
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14P11
|
Arthur James Collett
was born at Cairns on
4th April 1918 in a house on McLeod Street and described as being
on the corner of Grove Street and McLeod Street. That may or may not have been where his
three older siblings were also born.
He was baptised later that year at St John’s Church in Cairns on 30th
July 1918, the youngest son of George Collett and Kate Simpkin. Arthur was five years old when his family
moved to 18 Shaw Street, Auchenflower in Brisbane. |
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While living at Auchenflower, Arthur
began attending Toowong State School where he was presented with a book as a
prize for his swimming. He would have
been the first to admit that he did not enjoy school and often ‘wagged off’
on many occasions. He also recalled
receiving a good hiding for cutting-off the end the gramophone horn as he
thought it would be ideal to help feed the chickens. |
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|
On leaving school Arthur used to
accompany a man selling fruit for a shilling per basket until he secured his
first real job. That was with Bretts
at Windsor during the day which allowed him to undertake extra work at the
Elite Theatre in the evenings. That
was a cinema where Arthur rewound the film reels, threaded up the projectors,
and opened and closed the curtains before and after each film. In 1939 at the age of 21, Arthur was made
redundant and shortly after that the family bought a milk-round which Arthur
managed for them. He began with a
horse and cart but later on acquired a truck which he used to collect the
milk from Paul’s Dairy in South Brisbane, which he then delivered to homes in
Hamilton, Ascot, Doomben and Hendra. |
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Arthur
married Edna Muriel Hobbs on 13th December 1941 at Christ Church
in the St Lucia area of Brisbane. The
witnesses at the wedding were Arthur’s older brother Cyril Horace Collett
(above) and Ina Kirkland. It was
around that time that Arthur was working at the Ferry Shop in St Lucia. Edna was born at the Lady Bowen Hospital in
Yeerongpilly in Brisbane on 16th October 1918 and was baptised the
following month on 12th November 1918 at The People’s Evangelistic
Mission in Leichhardt Street, in the Spring Hill district of Brisbane. She was listed as being 23 years 1 month
and 28 days when she married Arthur who was slightly older at 23 years 8
months and 9 days. |
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Edna’s parents were Christopher John
Hobbs (1879 – 1961) who was born at Westwood near Bradford-on-Avon in
Wiltshire and his wife Martha Christina Emilie 'Minnie' KRONING (1880 – 1971)
of Tinana Creek, Maryborough. Arthur
was eventually called up by the Australian Army and was released each night
to deliver the milk but had to be back on camp by a set time each morning. |
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|
During
the war Edna would accompany Arthur on the round and would drop her off at
the Doomben Race Track with some crates of milk. United States servicemen were billeted
there and used to buy the milk from her with their US dollars. The marriage produced five children for
Arthur and Edna and all of them were born at the Royal Women’s Hospital in
Brisbane. Their first son was
christened with his late uncle Cyril’s name in commemoration of the fact that
he gave his life for his country. |
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|
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|
In
1994 Arthur and Edna were living at 40 McCormack Ave in the Ashgrove district
of Brisbane. However, two years later
he was admitted to hospital and never returned to their home. Arthur James Collett died on 23rd
November 1996 at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and was cremated at the Pinaroo
Lawn Cemetery in Brisbane on 28th November 1996, although his
ashes were not interred until 29th January 1997. During his life he worked as a milkman and
a postman. Edna Muriel Collett nee Hobbs
died on 2nd July 2007 while attending the Prince Charles Hospital
in the Chermside district of Brisbane.
|
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|
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|
14Q6
|
Shirley Ann Collett |
Born on
08.07.1943 at Brisbane |
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|
14Q7
|
Raymond Cyril Collett |
Born on
05.06.1946 at Brisbane |
|||||||
|
14Q8
|
Ronald James Collett |
Born on
19.01.1949 at Brisbane |
|||||||
|
14Q9
|
Keith Collett |
Born on
16.10.1950 at Brisbane |
|||||||
|
14Q10
|
Wayne Arthur Collett |
Born on
18.10.1959 at Brisbane |
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|
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|
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|||||||||
14P17 |
Violet Rachael Collett was born in 1896 but sadly died in
1900 when she was only four years old. |
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|
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|
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14P18 |
Oliver Collett was born in 1903 and he married Alice
Diana Mary in the early 1920s. |
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|
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|
14Q11 |
Ann
Marguerite Collett |
Born in 1929 |
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|
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14P22 |
Diana Collett was born in 1925. She married Paddy Firmston Williams and in
June 1996 the couple attended the Collett Reunion in Shepton Mallet, at a
time when they were living at Godalming in Surrey. |
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|
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|||||||||
14P24 |
Henry Stanley Peter
Collett was born in
1930 and was most often referred to simply as Peter Collett. In 1996 Peter was living in Australia and
although invited to the Shepton Mallet Collett Reunion in the June of that
year, he was unable to make the trip, so was represented by his sister Diana
(above). |
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14Q1
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Victor George Collett was born at Brisbane on 19th
September 1944. During his working
life he was an earth moving contractor.
In 1969 just a few months before his twenty-fifth birthday he married
Daniela Szezesniak in Brisbane on 30th May 1969. Daniela had also been born at Brisbane and
was almost exactly two years younger than her husband having been born on 11th
September 1946. The marriage produced
two children for Victor and Daniela, both of them being born at Brisbane. |
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14R1
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Justine
Daniela Collett |
Born on
25.09.1971 at Brisbane |
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14R2 |
Bradley Shawn
Collett |
Born on
14.10.1973 at Brisbane |
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14Q2
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Estelle Merle Collett was born at Brisbane on 21st March 1947. She first married (1) Walter James Shepherd
on 26th December 1969 with whom she had two children who were both
born at Brisbane. Walter was born on 7th
January 1946. After almost twenty
years of married life together Estelle and James were divorced in September
1989. Estelle’s two sons were Jason
Bradley Shepherd who was born on 26th July 1970, and Leeton Wade
Shepherd who was born on 14th October 1971. Six months after her divorce Estelle
married (2) Michael John Lane on 20th April 1990. Michael was just over three years younger
than Estelle having been born on 6th June 1950. |
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14Q3
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Maude Evelyn Collett was born at Brisbane on 24th May 1952. Just prior to her twentieth birthday she
married Mark Adrian Savage on 30th October 1971, the marriage
producing three children for the couple.
Mark was born on 27th January 1950, and their three
children were Derek Savage who was born on 8th July 1973, Selena
Jade Savage who was born on 2nd April 1977, and Adam Grant Savage
who was born on 30th January 1982. |
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14Q4
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Cathryne Dawn Collett was born at Brisbane on 15th November 1954. She later married Leslie Montague on 1st
August 1987, with whom she had two children.
Their daughter Leanne Linda Montague was born on 20th
January 1987, while their son Damian John Montague was born on 22nd
August 1990. Cathryne’s husband Leslie
Montague was born on 10th April 1957. |
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14Q5
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Harold Cyril Collett was born at Brisbane on 1st December 1957. He was just twenty years old when he
married Sue Ann Scowen on 5th January 1978 at Shepperton in
Victoria. Sue had been born at
Puckapunyal in Victoria on 4th November 1956 and she presented her
husband with four sons during the following decade. Tragically, the couple’s third son Peter
died during the same month that he was born in 1984. |
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14R3
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Daniel James
Collett |
Born on
09.09.1981 |
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14R4 |
Jonathan David
Collett |
Born on
22.11.1983 |
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14R5
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Peter Matthew
Collett |
Born in
October1984 |
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14R6 |
Michael
Gregory Collett |
Date of birth
unknown |
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14Q6
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Shirley Ann Collett was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital
in Brisbane on 8th July 1943.
She became a school teacher and married Warren Cecil Chambers at
Christ Church in St Lucia in Brisbane on 6th February 1965. Warren was born at Brisbane on 7th
October 1941 and during his life he worked as a mechanic with Stephens
Transport and later as a pest controller.
Shirley and Warren were married for over thirty-five years and during
that time they had ten children, all of whom were born at Brisbane in the
Royal Women’s Hospital. However, the
marriage ended in December 2000 when the couple were divorced. |
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The
ten children were: Christine Leanne, born 22nd April 1967 who
became a clerk with Brisbane City Council; Adrian James, born 15th
December 1968 who became a clerk with the North Brisbane Hospitals Board;
Allyson Kate, born 21st June 1972 who became a clerk with the
Queensland State library; Bronwyn Elizabeth, born 22nd July 1974
who was a shop assistant; Cathryn Angela, born 25th January 1977
who was a receptionist; Andrea Louise, born 8th December 1978 who
became Mrs Bate; Kenneth Warren, born 14th April 1981; Amy
Jennifer Ann, born 12th February 1983; Emma Clare, born 11th
March 1985; and Bethany Emily Jane who was born on 8th September 1988. |
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14Q7
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Raymond Cyril Collett was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital
in Brisbane on 5th June 1946.
His second Christian name was given to him in honour of his uncle
Cyril Horace Collett who lost his life fighting the Japanese during World War
Two. Raymond, who was a mechanic,
later married Susan Nolan at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Ashgrove in
Brisbane on 29th July 1967.
At the time of their wedding Raymond was recorded as being aged 21
years 1 month and 24 days, while Susan was 20 years 2 months and 27 days old. Their marriage produced three sons for the
couple and all three were born at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Brisbane. |
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14R7
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Adam Wade
Collett |
Born on
08.06.1977 at Brisbane |
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14R8 |
Clayton Scott
Collett |
Born on
24.04.1980 at Brisbane |
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14R9 |
Brock
Mitchell Collett |
Born on
11.08.1986 at Brisbane |
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14Q8
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Ronald James Collett was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital
in Brisbane on 19th January 1949.
During his working life he was a telecom technician and on 8th
May 1977 he married Sandra Baxendell at Marawah Farm in the Burbank district
of Brisbane. Sandra, who was qualified
as a veterinary doctor, was born in Queensland on 5th August 1953
and was recorded as being aged 23 years 9 months and 3 days when she married
Ronald who was 28 years 3 months and 20 days old. Sandra presented her husband with two
children, the first born at the Royal Women’s Hospital and the second at
Boothville Hospital, also in Brisbane. |
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14R10
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Morwenna Rose
Baxendell Collett |
Born on
06.08.1982 at Brisbane |
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14R11 |
Alastair
Arthur Bayley Baxendell Collett |
Born on
27.05.1986 at Brisbane |
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14Q9
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Keith Collett was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital
in Brisbane on 16th October 1950.
Keith worked as a builder and when he was aged 39 years and 8 months
he married Katherine Ann Talbot at Pine Rivers in Queensland on 16th
June 1990. Katherine was aged 25 years
1 month and 22 days at that time, having been born on 24th April 1965
and also at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Brisbane. By the third year of their marriage the
couple had two sons, but sadly the marriage ended in divorce in 2005. Both of their sons were born at the Royal
Women’s Hospital in Brisbane. |
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14R12
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Benjamin
Keith Collett |
Born on
27.01.1989 at Brisbane |
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14R13 |
Matthew
Patrick Collett |
Born on
31.08.1993 at Brisbane |
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14Q10
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Wayne Arthur Collett
was born at the Royal
Women’s Hospital in Brisbane on 18th October 1959 and was baptised
on 6th March 1960 at Christ Church in St Lucia, Brisbane. When he was just past his twentieth
birthday Wayne married Josephine Wendy Pound on 15th December 1979
at St Paul’s Anglican Church in the Ashgrove area of Brisbane. Jo was only three months older than Wayne
having been born at 96 Westbourne Avenue in Kingston-upon-Hull in England on
10th July 1959. Jo was
later baptised at the Newlands Congregational Church in Hull on 4th
October 1959. At the age of nine she
and her parents emigrated to Australia, leaving England on board the ocean
liner Fairsky on 17th March 1969 which arrived in Sydney on 21st
April that same year. |
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Jo
studied to be a school teacher and became a nationalised Australian citizen
at the City Hall in Brisbane on 25th January 1984 when she swore
the oath of allegiance before the Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Both of the sons of Wayne and Jo were born
at Brisbane, in the Royal Women’s Hospital, where the family is living in
2009 and where Wayne is working as a business analyst with the Brisbane City
Council. It is thanks to Wayne that
this line of the Collett family has been extended from in Gloucestershire in
1811 to the present day in Queensland, Australia. |
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14R14
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Thomas James
Collett |
Born on
08.03.1989 at Brisbane |
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14R15 |
Robert Wayne
Collett |
Born on
04.12.1990 at Brisbane |
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